Nathaniel Hackett’s head coaching debut ends in firestorm of criticism

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Nathaniel Hackett’s head coaching debut ended in a firestorm of criticism over his game management in the Broncos’ 17-16 season-opening loss in Seattle.

With 1:03 left in the fourth quarter, Javonte Williams was tackled at the Seahawks’ 46-yard line following a nine-yard reception. At that point, the Broncos were facing fourth-and-5, with three time outs left and a one-point deficit.

But instead of immediately taking a timeout to talk over what to do next, Hackett and the Broncos let 43 seconds run off before finally taking a timeout with 20 seconds on the game clock and one second left on the play clock.

In those 33 seconds, the Broncos showed no urgency; they huddled, then came to the line with Albert Okwuegbunam, Jerry Jeudy and KJ Hamler stacked on the right side and Courtland Sutton by himself on the left side. There appeared to be some late confusion between Sutton and Wilson on the play call.

When the Broncos came out of the timeout, Hackett elected to trot Brandon McManus out to attempt the 64-yard game winner. According to ESPN Analytics, the Broncos had a 30% chance win probability on McManus’ field goal attempt and a 29% chance win probability by going for it on fourth down.

“Javonte made an amazing play (with yards after his catch) on third-and-14, because I was expecting to have to go for it from that down-and-distance,” Hackett said. “But Javonte made that incredible play and put us into field goal range at the mark that we were looking for.”

The kick, which was wide left, would’ve been a career best for McManus (his high is 61) and tied for the second-longest field goal in NFL history. McManus has frequently voiced his desire to attempt longer kicks, and says upwards of 70 yards is well within his range. McManus missed his first attempt at the 64-yarder, which was called off due to a Seattle timeout.

“He had plenty of distance on that one and I was confident that he was going to be able to make that,” Hackett said. “If we have to put him in that situation again, I think he’ll be able to make it.”

McManus owned his miss after the game. The kicker is now 32-of-60 (53.3%) on field goals longer than 50 yards in his career.

“(The) 46-yard line left hash was my line to get to,” McManus tweeted. “They got it there. Need to make the kick.”

Hackett’s questionable clock management made Madden players scratch their heads nationwide and former Broncos QB Peyton Manning, calling the game on ESPN2 via his ManningCast, visibly uncomfortable with the lack of execution.

Peyton was trying his HARDEST to call a TO for the Broncos pic.twitter.com/eZxNQdWpPH

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) September 13, 2022

“You’ve got three timeouts here, I might use one right here,” Manning said at the 55-second mark, gesturing for a timeout himself. “Let’s use one and talk about this.”

“I think we should call timeout, like, now,” Manning said again with 32 seconds on the game clock, this time with urgency in his tone. By the time the Broncos did call timeout, Manning had his hands on his head, aghast.

Former Broncos tight end Shannon Sharpe, on the broadcast as a guest, was similarly unimpressed.

“What the?” Sharpe said. “So you just burned (more than) 30 seconds to call a timeout?”

Eli Manning pointed out ahead of the timeout that “(the Broncos) look unsettled, and Sutton doesn’t know what he’s doing.” That was a common theme for the Broncos offense on Monday, as Denver struggled to get in and out of the huddle quickly at a sold-out Lumen Field. The Broncos had three false-start penalties, and Wilson was pegged for two delay-of-game calls.

“We have no excuses (for the offensive inefficiencies),” Hackett said. “We have to be sure that we get the play in, and get it called, and get those guys rolling. It was definitely loud, but that’s no excuse. We’ve got to be better.”

When McManus came out from the timeout to try the 64-yarder, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was just as surprised as most of Broncos Country that Hackett elected to kick over putting the ball in the hands of the new face of the franchise, No. 3 .

I was surprised they took Russ out there at the end,” Carroll said.

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