Welcome to the Nathaniel Hackett era, Denver.
Week 1 didn’t go as planned for the Denver Broncos, who opened up their season with a loss to the Seattle Seahawks, 17-16. Russell Wilson’s Broncos debut had all the elements one would expect. He was incredibly accurate, tantalizingly corny, and made us scratch our heads enough to remember that you can take Wilson out of Seattle, but you can’t take Seattle out of Wilson.
The most confusing aspect of the Monday Night Football extravaganza wasn’t Wilson, though. It was his coach, Hackett, and his clinic on how to lose a football game.
Late in the fourth quarter, Denver was down by a single point and faced a fourth-and-five at Seattle’s 47. With 1:11 on the clock and three time outs, there was a single sensible option.
Give your newly acquired, newly extended Hall of Fame quarterback the chance to win the game. Right? RIGHT?
Wrong.
Oy Vey
As Peyton Manning mimed the timeout signal from a studio living room miles away, the seconds trickled away. Manning got his wish 40 seconds late, with 20 seconds remaining. Hackett took the ball away from his franchise’s savior in favor of Brandon McManus and a 64-yard field goal. You can guess how that went.
Even worse, they shouldn’t have been in that position to begin with. Denver outpaced Seattle by 180 yards. Their two red zone fumbles, courtesy of Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon, short-circuited any attempt to pull away.
Hackett is partly to blame here, too. Both fumbles were on run plays out of shotgun, a cardinal sin for goal line offenses. Unless Derrick Henry is giving you a free read-option cheat code, just line up under center. Giving defensive linemen a “head start” when they’re trying to blow up your running back…isn’t the best idea.
Ultimately, Hackett’s debut gave us more questions than answers and more concerns than compliments. In a tough AFC West, losing games to bottom-feeders isn’t going to cut it. Denver has fallen to +425 to win the division on DraftKings. They’ll get a chance to right that ship on Sunday against Houston.