Unless the Broncos rediscover how to run the rock, rookie Bo Nix is going to find himself in a very hard place.

Riding a four-game winning streak that has put Denver on the cusp of its first playoff appearance since the 2015 NFL season with three games remaining on the regular-season schedule, Nix and his teammates are brimming with confidence.

“We got three games to win three,” Nix said Tuesday, “go into the playoffs and win a Super Bowl.”

You gotta love the big, bold way this young man thinks.

But I fear Nix and his teammates could be headed for a huge, hard fall.

After building a 9-5 record against quarterbacks that couldn’t play dead in a western movie, all the remaining QBs on Denver’s regular-season schedule possess real star quality:

Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s a huge step up from Gardner Minshew, Jameis Winston and Anthony Richardson.

“We’re entering a stretch,” Denver coach Sean Payton said, “where it’s a little different.”

With the weather, not to mention the opposition, soon to turn brutal for the Broncos, they very well might not win another game this season unless Denver can regain a sense of offensive balance.

The looming question: Can Payton learn to love the run and get more production out of Javonte Williams, Jaleel McGlaughlin and Audric Estimé, whose ability to move the chains seems stuck in committee with a coach whose commitment to ground-and-pound seems iffy at best?

Denver has become too dependent on Nix to make game-changing plays. During the winning streak, Denver’s first-year quarterback has averaged more yards per carry (2.8) than the team’s purported lead back, Williams (2.7).

And I would contend Nix has thrown nearly half of his 11 interceptions on the season during the past two games, in no small part because he has felt compelled to play hero ball.

With as much moxie as Nix has played with as a rookie, I’m not certain it will turn out well for the Broncos if he’s expected to step up at this stage in his career and win a shootout against Herbert, Burrow or Mahomes.

While we all know the NFL is a pass-first league. But later in the season, when the winter wind starts to howl, there seems to be a greater premium on the importance of running the football when it’s an absolute necessity.

I asked Broncos offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi if it’s still important to know how to win a rock fight in 2024, or if my fondness for wearing down a defense is an outdated idea.

“When we go on the road, in cold weather, running the ball is important. Weather affects the passing game a whole lot. When you get in those tough conditions, you have to be effective running the football,” Lombardi said.

When the Broncos play the Chargers in Los Angeles on Thursday night, nobody is going to need mittens or a heater on the sideline.

But when it’s damp and gray in the Midwest, snowing in Colorado or frigid in the playoffs, every tackle can sting to the bone.

“You talk about facing somebody like (Baltimore’s 245-pound running back) Derrick Henry late in the season, when your defense is maybe not as physically healthy as you were in September. Now, it’s cold, and tackling that guy hurts a lot more,” Lombardi said. “So when you can impose your will on teams with physicality late in the season, I do think there’s something to that.”

Three yards and a cloud of dust would be more spectacular than the fall down and go boom that Williams does far too regularly after taking a handoff from Nix. During the past four games, the Broncos have rushed for a meager 346 yards.

I suspect the irritated chatter regularly heard in the press box during recent games would sound familiar to the fans watching on the sofa from home:

What kind of trust issues must Payton have with Estimé to so stubbornly refuse to give the rookie running back a real chance to make an impact?

As remarkable as the job Nix and his teammates have done in re-awakening Broncomania, this team can’t go on this way.

While the defense has real teeth, the offense doesn’t demand respect because there’s precious little physicality in Payton’s offensive approach.

Too harsh?

Maybe.

But at the very least, can we agree the Broncos don’t want to travel to Buffalo to face quarterback Josh Allen on a frigid day in January without packing their long johns and a commitment to pounding the rock?