The Broncos could’ve had the Seahawks exactly where they wanted them on Monday night. As a heavy favorite (-6.5) coming in, even despite a glut of unfortunate red zone miscues, Denver had a chance to salt away the victory on their final possession of the evening.
Unfortunately, after wasting 30 seconds with all three timeouts, new Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett decided to unfathomably settle for a potential game-winning 64-yard field goal in arguably the worst coaching decision of Week 1. The Seahawks won, 17-16 (Note: There have been just 25 field goals over 60 yards since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970). And after he doubled down in the postgame, everyone wondered how Hackett could possibly rationalize his confounding decision.
On Tuesday, after the sting of the Broncos’ stunning defeat started to set in, Hackett finally admitted his mistake in a press conference with reporters:
Addressing his decision to attempt a game-winning 64-yard FG last night, Broncos’ HC Nathaniel Hackett just told reporters, “Looking back at it, we definitely should've gone for it.”
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 13, 2022
Hindsight is very much 20/20, and kudos to Hackett for owning up to his faulty logic. That said, this was the kind of situation where the head coach probably should’ve seen he was wrong right away because it cost Denver dearly.