In his debut with the Denver Broncos, rookie quarterback Bo Nix lived up to expectations. The expectation was that he would make his living in college running screens and checkdowns. His “average depth of target” at Oregon — essentially how far away Nix’s receivers were when he threw to them — was a near-FBS-low 6.8 yards. Though he set the NCAA single-season completion percentage record last year, it helped that more than a quarter of his passes came behind the line of scrimmage.

For comparison, fellow Heisman finalists Michael Penix Jr. and Jayden Daniels completed 16 percent and 13 percent of their passes behind the line of scrimmage, respectively, according to Pro Football Focus. There’s nothing wrong with checking it every once in a while; plenty of young quarterbacks could do it more often. But generally speaking, in football, you want to get the ball past the line of scrimmage to gain ground so your team can score points, such as a touchdown.

The Broncos defense did its best to spare Nix that responsibility Sunday afternoon against the Seattle Seahawks—or maybe they were inspired by him. On their side of the ball, they can actually score points by making plays behind the line of scrimmage. By halftime, Denver had put together 13 points in an unconventional way: two safeties and three field goals. Meanwhile, Nix picked up where he left off in college, recording his first two NFL completions on throws behind the line. Here’s what his final passing chart looked like:

To save you some point-counting, that’s 12 attempts thrown 10 or more yards beyond the line of scrimmage. The offense’s reliance on speedy hitters was probably for the best. Four of Nix’s longer passes were caught; two by the Broncos, two by the Seahawks. His forays downfield were so bad that one throw in the fourth quarter prompted CBS color commentator Adam Archuleta to immediately utter, “Oh no,” before the cameraman could finish panning to the Seattle secondary, where the pass was intercepted by Riq Woolen.

The Broncos managed just 99 total rushing yards on 25 carries, and 35 of those yards came on Nix scrambles. Head coach Sean Payton pointed to the team’s lifeless ground game and some receiver drops when assessing his rookie starter’s performance in the 26-20 loss. “It’s going to be tough to play quarterback, period, when that’s the best we can do running the ball,” Payton said after the game. But the causal chain could have worked the other way, too: Passing sets up the run, and the Seahawks defense didn’t have to take the Broncos’ passing game very seriously.

To be fair to Nix, none of the other rookie quarterbacks who started Sunday made the job much easier. Caleb Williams celebrated his first NFL victory entirely on the strength of the Bears’ defense and special teams, the only units to score a touchdown in their 24-17 win over the Titans. Williams even stole the title of “checkdown merchant” for himself, allowing 3.2 yards per attempt to Nix’s 3.3 and totaling just 93 passing yards. Jayden Daniels put up more impressive numbers in his Commanders debut — he bested the other two by 184 passing yards — but fell to the Buccaneers 37-20.

So in Week 1, the rookie quarterbacks looked like rookie quarterbacks. Nix was playing the toughest position in football and facing one of the league’s sharpest defensive minds on foreign soil. He should probably be given a curve. Consider it a victory if the TV analyst next week can wait until all of Nix’s plays are over before calling them a disaster.