EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Oregon Duck looked like a fish out of water.

Bo Nix could not get a grip. His throws were as slippery as the ball in his right hand, falling oddly in all directions.

Did he consider putting on a glove as he became the first NFL quarterback since 1991 to complete three passes in the first half and throw for negative yardage?

“I didn’t,” Nix told The Denver Post as the locker room cleared out, smoke dissipating from Club Dub’s celebration of a 10-9 upset victory over the New York Jets. “I have never worn one before.”

This is the thing about Nix. He is comfortable in his skin. He knows who he is and what he can do even when the game he loves mocks him. He reminds me of Tim Tebow. In a good way.

Through four games, Nix has been easier to appreciate than explain.

On a rainy, wet, miserable Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium, Nix made the idea of the forward pass seem like a foreign concept. Tebow once won a game in 2011 at Kansas City with two completions. Nix won Sunday when he didn’t complete a pass beyond the line of scrimmage until the third quarter.

He is not Tebow. Let’s be clear. Tim’s favorite receiver was the ground, leaving those actually running routes jealous and confused. Nix connects with receivers, but for long stretches at Seattle and against Pittsburgh and the Jets, it has been for scant yardage. Or worse.

But amazingly, surprisingly, consistently, Nix fails to lose his confidence.

“He won’t flinch. He doesn’t flinch. It doesn’t matter what the situation is,” right guard Quinn Meinerz said. “We know the plays are going to take care of themselves. We are all going to keep doing our job. None of us give a (bleep) about the stats. I would have never known he was minus-7 yards passing. All we care about is winning.”

This is where the Tebow comparison comes in. Tebow always thought he would pull out a victory even when the offense sputtered, staggered and stumbled for 58 minutes.

Nix, too, possesses unwavering mental strength. He is centered, a 24-year-old mature beyond his years. And like Tebow, Nix is deeply religious. Scripture tells us faith is believing in what you cannot see.

Nix clearly remained blind to the odds against him. Midway through the third quarter, the Broncos trailed 6-0. Nix was 8 for 19 for 16 yards passing. Denver had converted one third down.

The Broncos defense was displaying a cowboy-up mentality, while the offense remained fluent in curling up. Yet, there was no panic in Nix. He should have had sweat dripping down his face and pterodactyls fluttering in his stomach. But when it looked like there was only a narrow path to an upset — a pick-six, scoop and score or special teams touchdown — competence appeared.

Facing third-and-11 from his own 24-yard line, Nix stood firm in the pocket and delivered a 29-yard strike to Courtland Sutton. I could practically hear him exhale from the press box six stories above the soggy turf.

“You are back there, you let it develop, you rip it and trust that he’s going to get there,” said Nix, who finished 12-of-25 passing and was not sacked for the second consecutive game. “And sure enough he gets there. It almost flipped the field.”

Turning points in this game were more like NASCAR tracks, bringing us back to the starting line. But this completion became the moment the offense showed that it was capable of doing just enough.

Five plays later, Nix made personal history, recording his first touchdown pass — an 8-yard lob to a wide-open Sutton in the back of the end zone. Nix and Sutton combined for one of the strangest stat lines ever. Sutton caught three passes for 60 yards. Six other players caught nine passes for zero yards.

There are only ugly losses. There are no ugly wins.

“Three cities, two wins, that’s wild,” said left tackle Garett Bolles of the Broncos’ trip through Tampa Bay, Sulphur Springs and East Rutherford. “It doesn’t matter what it looked like. We did it.”

And that appears to be the lesson with Nix as the lead actor in “The Rookie.” It has been more scribbles than Picasso. Payton, though, trusts him. Sunday, he said with a straight face that he thought Nix “played well,” citing the miserable weather for the miserable numbers.

“I wish you guys could go out to dinner with him,” explained Payton of the kid he sees behind the scenes.

Nix did not finish. With an opportunity to run out the clock, he left the gnarly defense to make one last stand, resulting in Greg Zuerlein’s missed 50-yard field goal.

Two scoring drives will not win many games, if any, going forward. On one, Nix completed two passes. On the go-ahead possession, he had none. Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio and Tim Tebow? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

It doesn’t make any sense. And that’s OK. A quarter of the way through the season, that is Bo Nix.

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