Sunday Night Football: Bo Nix's impressive TD pass gives Broncos 13-7 halftime lead

The Broncos offense kicked a pair of field goals in the red zone early, but cashed in on their third red-zone opportunity with an impressive play by Bo Nix to take a 13-7 halftime lead over the Commanders.

While rolling to his right and being brought down, Nix fired an accurate ball with some heat to receiver Courland Sutton for Denver’s first touchdown of the night with 23 seconds left in the second quarter.

The score capped a 10-play, 64-yard drive that took 1:58.

Nix finished the first half 15-of-24 for 146 yards with that one TD.

Wil Lutz hit two 33-yard field goals — one in the first quarter and one in the second — for Denver’s other six points in the first half.

While the Commanders held a brief one-point lead, they could have had more points. Marcus Mariota made a brutal decision early in the second quarter that wiped points off the board. On second-and-6 from the Denver 19, Mariota looked like he might scramble, but then elected to fire the ball toward his left while getting hit hard by defensive tackle D.J. Jones. The ball was late to the outside, floated, and was intercepted by linebacker Dre Greenlaw — who returned it 27 yards to Denver’s 34.

Wil Lutz ended up hitting his second field goal off of that to make the score 6-0, Denver.

On Washington’s next drive, however, a potentially controversial call helped the club get in the end zone. After defensive lineman Zach Allen ostensibly made a stop on Mariota to bring up second-and-15, Nick Bonitto was flagged for unnecessary roughness for pulling a player off a “pile.” But the so-called pile only included one other player, where, as NBC rules analyst Terry McAulay explained, a pile is usually at least two players.

The penalty put Washington on Denver’s 8-yard line, and running back Chris Rodriguez put the ball in the box on the next play to give the Commanders a 7-6 lead.

Mariota ended the first half 9-of-13 for 72 yards with an interception. Tight end Zach Ertz leads with five catches for 45 yards.

The Commanders will receive the second-half kickoff.