Connections: Sports Edition Coach: Hints, facts about puzzle No. 5

Need help with today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle? You’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues, learn a bit more about today’s terms and discuss (and share) scores.

A quick public service announcement before we continue: The bottom of this article includes one answer in each of the four categories and some deeper reading about one of the answers. So if you want to solve the board hint-free, we recommend you play before continuing.

You can access Saturday’s game here.

Today’s difficulty

The difficulty score is an average rating from our testers, who play the game in advance to check for quality and accuracy.

Game No. 5’s difficulty: 2.3 out of 5

Hints

Scroll below for one answer in each of the four categories.

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Yellow: ROUGH

Green: BLAST

Blue: CAPITALS

Purple: BRONCOS

More reading (and an extra hint)

That’s Broncos, as in the Denver Broncos. Is the board clearing up at all?

Denver was one of six teams to draft a rookie quarterback in the first round this season — taking Bo Nix of Oregon with the 12th pick. Nix got off to a slow start, losing his first two starts, but bounced back last week in a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Athletic’s Nick Kosmider covers the Broncos, and before the season began, he profiled Nix’s rise from high school varsity quarterback in the eighth grade to Denver QB1. Read it below.

The next puzzle will be available at midnight in your time zone. Thanks for playing — and share your scores in the comments!

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(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic)