Horse Tracks: ‘Finding a way to win’ is still winning, no matter how ugly

Following an ugly but effective 23-17 win over the Chargers on Sunday, quarterback Bo Nix was the first to admit it wasn’t “his best.”

“The game, the feel and the results of drives told me that it wasn’t necessarily pretty, but we just found a way to win,” Nix said, adding the offense as a whole was OK. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to score more points, and that’s something that we’re going to continue to work on.”

The problem, as Nix sees it, is consistency.

“Right now, there’s just a little subtle piece of overall offensive execution that we’re still working towards, because at times, it’s there and we’re really good,” he said. “At times, for whatever reason, the drive stalls.”

If it weren’t for the defense, which practically gift-wrapped 13 points for the offense, it would have been a much messier day and not a win.

“I don’t think we win the game without those turnovers,” Nix said, noting the offense should have been able to get touchdowns out of those short fields instead of having to settle for field goals. “So we need to clean that up.”

Head coach Sean Payton thinks a big part of the answer is better protection up front.

“I think it’s important from a protection standpoint, that early in games we provide that clean pocket so that clock doesn’t get juiced up a little bit,” Payton added.

Of course, Nix’s footwork bears some responsibility for the offense’s struggles too. Payton thinks the QB is “settling down a little bit,” but the coach reiterated his complaint from last week that the entire team, especially the offense, needs to be good at the details.

“I think after four weeks there’s a handful of things that collectively — and you know, it starts with me — where it’s like, all right, let’s focus on these details,” Payton said. “And I think the byproduct helps the [quarterback].”

No matter Nix’s struggles this season, Payton has let him know he’s guy the coach wants in control.

“I said to him ‘man, you’re the guy we want here. Let’s go. You’ve done a ton of things well.’ But I think a lot goes into that,” Payton noted. “I want him to make sure that we can let it rip.”

For Nix that means trusting what he sees. 

 “You’ve got to sort of earn that right,” Nix added. “When you do the preparation, you earn the right to react so that you can let it rip.”

The main problem with that is Nix and the offense “earn the right” one series and then lose it the next.

“There were times I felt like I was really good when the play was there,” Nix said. “There’s other times I feel like there’s still some things that I could either see or process better. …It’s just the layers and layers of being a quarterback and processing. Nothing’s ever going to be easy,” 

Payton reiterated that he coaches for small steps of improvement — and as coach he’s accountable for that too — particularly when it comes to calling protections so the offense can convert a few more (or any!) third downs.

“I’ll say it again, you’re always looking for small steps,” Payton added. “The strength of that front, the edges can be a problem, and then they do a pretty good job with some zone pressures.”

Nix joked it would be great if the defense lined up exactly like they wanted because “you’d probably have a lot of touchdowns and a lot of points.”

But that’s not going to happen.

“The important thing is we’re sitting here talking about a win,” Nix added. “That’s really, really important.”