OFFENSE – A-

Bo Nix easily had his best career performance to date, totaling four touchdowns. With virtually no pressure to worry about, the rookie quarterback stood in the pocket and threw darts down the field. It was only the second time the Broncos scored four offensive touchdowns in a game under head coach Sean Payton and the fourth time in the last three seasons. If you want to nitpick, Denver really didn’t have much of a running game for most of the early part of the contest. But that hardly mattered. After a fumble and a punt on their first two drives, Nix and company scored touchdowns on four of their next five possessions.

DEFENSE – A-

The Broncos defense got off to a rough start, giving up four first downs, missing several tackles and giving up a touchdown — albeit set up by a Lil’Jordan Humphrey fumble — to the anemic Panthers offense on its first drive. But from there, Vance Joseph’s group did its job. They allowed just one first down from the 6:24 mark of the first until the end of the third quarter. The Panthers didn’t score again until the final seconds. Pat Surtain II and Ja’Quan McMillian each intercepted Bryce Young. It was the kind of lockdown performance you’d expect from this band.

SPECIAL TEAMS — B

Another week, another quality outing for the Broncos punt team. Riley Dixon hooked a nice punt that Tremon Smith passed to Lucas Krull. Krull was able to keep him out of the end zone and the Broncos took him down at the 1-yard line. It was the fourth time they had done this already in seven games this season.