Nix man up. If there’s a template for Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham next week in the AFC Championship, he can follow Marvin Mims Jr.’s footsteps from Saturday. Better than the Bills’ secondary did, at any rate. “Just (given) the moment, and with Troy (Franklin) and Pat (Bryant) being o ut, somebody’s just got to step up,” Mims told me at his locker Saturday, smiling after grabbing a team-high eight receptions for 93 yards and a touchdown in a wild, wacky 33-30 overtime win over the Buffalo Bills. “Just being able to fill that role and help the team, it was huge.” Huge. Clutch. It took a village for the Broncos to win 15 out of 18 games. Whenever someone’s fallen, somebody else picked up the rope and ran with it. Mims’ turn came with a minute left in regulation. He shook a defender and cut into the near left corner of the end zone, got two feet in bounds, turned, slid — and accidentally collided with the camera of a sideline photographer, which dinged him squarely in the back. “I was down, I could’ve got up,” he said. “But they told me to just stay down. They say that metal, walls, all that stuff — never fails, doesn’t budge.” He laughed. Neither do these Broncos. Stubborn to the last. “(It was) a play we’ve been working on,” Mims continued. “I ran it in rookie camp. We actually watched the film (earlier this week) of me running in rookie camp, and Coach (Sean) Payton loved the play, and he called it (Saturday) … not the look we wanted, but Bo put the ball perfectly outside, and I was able to make a play on it.” That put the Broncos up 29-27 pending the extra point. Mims ran a similar route to draw a flag on the second-to-last play of overtime. In doing so, it drew a pass-interference call on Buffalo cornerback Tre’Davious White that gave the Broncos the ball at the Bills’ 8-yard line. Nix, who’ll now be out for the rest of the season with a fractured ankle, spotted the Bills in a ‘man’ look in overtime and decided to test Buffalo’s deep coverage. “These guys aren’t about to run a ‘man’ (coverage) on us,” Nix said in his final, game-winning huddle with the Broncos. Bo checked off to some man-beating routes. The rest is history. Mind you, the history of Saturday’s overtime is going to play a little differently in the annals of upstate New York than it will along the Front Range. Especially as the Bills left the field convinced they should’ve won that game in overtime during the prior possession. Josh Allen fired deep on third-and-11 to Bills wideout Brandin Cooks, who went down in a rolling heap on the grass with Broncos nickel back Ja’Quan McMillian. After about a second of tussling, McMillian arose with the ball in his hand, raising it to the sky like Excalibur. Officials credited McMillian with the interception. Replays appeared somewhat more … inconclusive. Yeah. “If (Cooks) catch that ball, the game’s probably over right?” Broncos right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “Yeah, it was a magical play. There’s something special going on here right now. Take advantage of it.” “It looked like a catch in real time,” Mims added. “Huge play for us. And Ja’Quan (was) finding ways to be clutch in huge situations.” “That’s been this team all year long, hasn’t it?” I asked. “For sure,” Mims nodded. “It adds up. Just finding ways to win in different, huge ways. You’ve got three receivers out. Me, LJ (Lil’Jordan Humphrey), Court (Courtland Sutton), guys staying the whole game, finding a way to win, finding a way to make plays. “And it’s just a typical thing for us — just figuring out different ways to win. So, just going through the game (Saturday), none of us budged. We all knew. We all had each other’s backs. We all trusted each other.” Now they’ll have to trust someone else to lead the huddle. Nix completed his first two throws of the winning drive, including a 3-yarder to Mims at the start of the drive, before a 24-yard catch-and-run to rookie tailback R.J. Harvey gave the hosts a first down at midfield. It would be Nix’s last drive of the season, as Payton told reporters about 90 minutes after the game that his second-year quarterback had fractured his right ankle during overtime. “No matter the situation, (Nix) stays competitive,” Mims reflected. “I mean, for him, just him and his passing ability, his composure, his leadership, his running ability. Bo can make a play out of anything … I mean, it’s unbelievable to think about the things he’s done this year for this team. He’s a heck of a leader, and he’s been leading us all year.” He’ll have to do it from the sideline from here on out. Mims knows that drill plenty well already. “Pat (Bryant) goes out, I think, first drive,” the receiver recalled. “And then Troy (Franklin) goes out right before halftime, and it’s like, we don’t have any numbers. “With me, I do running back, receiver, kickoff return, and punt return, so it’s like, how are we gonna figure this all out? (So), huge testament to the coaches and just figuring it all out and getting this going, but at the end of the day, I mean, just, I mean, just being ready for the moment. “I did a lot of stuff I haven’t done all year. You practice it a little bit in practice, but most of the time, it’s those (other) guys getting those reps … but, you get your opportunity, you’ve got to make the most of it. As an NFL player, you can’t just pout about it all year, and then when your moment comes, you’re not ready for it, you know what I mean?” We do. It’s Stiddy’s’moment now. A win that sends you to Santa Clara is going to take every hand in the room. And every heart. ...read more read less