Bo Nix shines, Sean Payton shines in the Broncos' 28-14 win over the Panthers

Rubber, hit the road.

The Broncos hadn't even gotten a decisive 28-14 win over Carolina on Sunday, and coach Sean Payton was already thinking about the future.

He couldn't erase this win, Denver's fifth in the last six games, fast enough.

He couldn't say loud enough his checklist of all the ways his team needed to improve.

Payton knew what this game against the Panthers was: the next one on the schedule. A game that his team should definitely win. A chance to get his young quarterback into a rhythm.

He also knew what it wasn't: good for a true measure of his group's growth or, really, a fair fight.

In fact, after a win that wasn't nearly as close or competitive as the final score suggested, Payton made two things clear.

First, he wasn't thrilled with the way his team performed against a bad Panthers team, and he couldn't help but describe it in blunt terms. Among the issues that vexed Payton were another slow start, a few fumbles by his wide receivers and a lackluster day in football.

“I said, 'We're going to play in bigger games than this,'” the Broncos coach delivered his message to his team after the game. “But in bigger games than this, some of those mistakes are going to cost you. We have to take care of that.”

Second: He and his team are eager to play against Baltimore and Kansas City on the next two Sundays.

“We have a big game this week against a much better team,” he said. “A much better team.”

Payton recently told a story about how he looked at rookie quarterback Bo Nix as the team lost to the Los Angeles Chargers by three points, teaching a lesson about how life in the NFL is, in some ways, different than life in Oregon .

“We don't have – I won't use a college team name because I don't want to offend anyone – but we don't have Such-and-So University on our schedule,” Payton said earlier this month.

Well, this version of the Panthers is as close to Such-and-So University as it gets at the pro level, and Payton wasted no time in using the matchup to his advantage.

He wanted to get Nix into a rhythm, so he set about throwing the ball early and often. Payton caught 29 passes against 12 run calls in the first half alone and watched Nix act like he was tearing apart the Pac-12 defense, not the Panthers.

Nix easily compiled the most sparkling statistics of his young pro career, finishing 27 of 38 for 284 yards and three touchdowns. He was sacked twice but also ran for a touchdown.

Nix had done some good things through the first seven games, but Denver entered Week 8 as one of the worst passing teams in the NFL by nearly every efficiency metric. Nix had thrown five touchdown passes against five interceptions – and then added three touchdowns to his tally on Sunday alone.

He had been playing out of the pocket for much of the past few weeks, but against a listless Panthers pass rush he had time to sit back and play in the rhythm of the offense on Sunday.

“We have it in our arsenal,” Nix said. “We just have to go out there and execute it like we did. I think we did a really good job of starting fast and early. We found a good rhythm there. Everyone on the field made plays: receivers, tight ends, running backs, it didn't matter. The ball was distributed to many positions and I thought that was good.

“It’s tough on a defense when we get all those guys the ball.”

Things were undoubtedly tough for Carolina's beleaguered defense.

It remains to be seen if the Broncos have it in their arsenal against upper echelon teams.

The Broncos have won five of their last six games by beating mostly struggling teams. Tampa is 4-4 after Sunday's loss and its other four wins have come against teams that are a combined 7-25.

The combined record of the three teams Denver lost to: 13-9.

The combined record of their next three opponents (Baltimore, Kansas City and Atlanta): 17-6.

When Payton wants to make sure his team stays on its toes, he turns to one of the many pages he borrowed from Bill Parcells' playbook and “creates a crisis,” as he calls it.

On Sunday he didn't have to look far.

Payton was upset that his offense fell to 102 yards on 32 carries after a dominant game against New Orleans.

He really didn't like that Lil'Jordan Humphrey and Courtland Sutton both fumbled the ball after catches.

“It bothers you,” Payton said after telling the team radio show after the game that he would find new receivers if the current ones continued to lose the ball.

He didn't like the way his team handled the fourth quarter, even though they were in control the entire time and Payton himself made a fake field goal and a wide receiver pass to put them up for future opponents to keep the NFC South opponent's nose in the mud or both.

Payton didn't like that Vance Joseph's defense gave up a labored touchdown drive in the final minutes, even though the group allowed no points and a total of six first downs in the nine drives before the score.

“We didn’t play a good offense. That’s just the truth,” Payton said. “We expected to play well and we will see much better teams.”

If any player leaves the locker room on Sunday feeling too good about the team's position – which is unlikely given Payton's postgame demeanor – there will certainly be a rigorous film session on Monday.

“I’m never against a coach coming after us because we want to get better,” left back Ben Powers said.