That was a bad loss, even if Russell Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett won’t admit it. The Denver Broncos 17-16 loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football was disastrous as the Broncos worryingly collapsed under pressure.
That game was truly brutal…if you were a Broncos fan. The newly built Denver Broncos roster, with Russell Wilson as its centerpiece, was horrific as they turned the ball over twice (both times coming on the 1-yard line), committed 12 penalties for 106 yards, and only managed to score one TD even though they dominated the Seahawks in time of possession, total passing yards, and total running yards, and total combined yards.
It will be a while before we see another team suffer from such incompetence in high-pressure situations as the Broncos did Monday night.
Sure, there will be teams that play worse than the Broncos and there will be teams that fail to score as many points as the Broncos did (the Cowboys, Jets, and Patriots have already failed to do so), but I highly doubt we’ll see a team fail to score game-changing points on three separate occasions in ONE game.
The Broncos should have easily won that game by 17 points. Fumbling the ball TWICE on the opposing team’s goal line and then wasting 40-seconds as the clock was running down just to kick a 64-yard field goal (that ended up missing) is a serious blunder that shouldn’t be downplayed.
Nathaniel Hackett has a lot of explaining to do for these errors.
Fumbling the ball once on the goal line once is unfortunate, but, hey, mistakes happen. That’s not what shocked me. What shocked me was that Hackett allowed that detrimental mental mistake to happen again when the Broncos fumbled the ball for a second time on the goal line.
That’s 14 lost points the Broncos could have had.
Hackett should have drilled it into that team to keep the ball secure, no matter what the cost, after that first fumble occurred. Plus, the coach should have instilled ball security and discipline into that team before the game, which obviously didn’t happen. Hackett should have known that the Seattle crowd was going to be up for this game as it was Russell Wilson’s ‘Return To Seattle’ game.
It was obvious that the Seattle crowd was going to be loud and disruptive to the offense. And it was Hackett’s job to counteract the crowd, though he failed miserably to do so.
If you think I’m being too harsh on Hackett for these fumbles, let me ask you a question: Do you think Bill Belichick would have allowed the Patriots, during their reign at the top, to fumble the ball on the goal line twice? I don’t think so.
Nevertheless, what was even worse for the new head coach was his baffling field goal call at the end of the game. What was he thinking having Brandon McManus kick a 64-yard field goal, even though Denver had two timeouts and over a minute left on the clock to get more yards?
Is Hackett really that naïve to think that there would be no difference between a 40ish-yard field goal versus a 64-yard field goal, especially in a hostile Seattle environment?
If he did, then he’s well over his head.
Now, that last game was Hackett’s first as a head coach and Russell Wilson was definitely affected by the Seattle crowd, so I wouldn’t panic if I was a Broncos fan yet. However, the sheer incompetence and lack of authority Hackett displayed during the key moments of that game was worrisome and should give Broncos fans pause over their playoff hopes for this season.
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