Anatomy of a Play: What on Earth was Russell Wilson thinking?

Russell Wilson’s disaster of a game against the Colts isn’t the first he’s had with the Broncos. Can Wilson and his new team recover from this?

So… here was the situation.

With 2:38 left in overtime of what was one of the worst NFL games any of us have ever seen, the Denver Broncos had fourth-and-1 at the Indianapolis Colts’ five-yard line. The Broncos were down 12-9, as Colts kicker Chase McLaughlin had booted a 48-yard field goal on Indianapolis’ previous drive.

The Broncos had three choices here — they could kick a field goal to tie and hope the Colts didn’t drive back down the field, they could go for the first down and give themselves another set of downs to figure things out, or they could go for the win.

Actually, there were four options, and Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson went with that one. Option 4 was to throw into coverage, ignore a wide-open target in the end zone, and fail to convert the fourth down. Wilson attempted a pass to receiver Courtland Sutton, Colts cornerback Stephon Gilmore broke it up, and that was your ballgame.

There were multiple reasons this play was a disaster, and it’s time to get into all of them. Denver’s offense has been a total wreck with Wilson and new head coach Nathaniel Hackett — this was merely the latest example. But this play, as the ultimate dog of a dog game, presented all kinds of illustrative examples as to why neither Hackett nor Wilson seem to know what’s going on here.

We have at least a thousand words on this abomination of strategy and execution, so let’s get into it.