DENVER | In a game where every little detail counted, the Broncos made two fatal errors and one of them was the work of head coach Sean Payton, who did not opt for a field goal attempt on a fourth down and who ended up with his mouth in the water.
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This decision is difficult to explain. Easy to say after the fact, some will say, but the context certainly dictated that we be satisfied with the three points.
With 14 yards to the end zone and one yard to go, Payton let himself be guided by his instincts and his aggressive mentality on offense.
Knowing that his team left everything on the field and was defeated by three points, it was a turning point in the match, even if the game came early in the second quarter, with a 7-0 lead.
“We couldn’t have known that it would be a match decided by three points. I felt like we had the momentum with the chance to take the lead by 14 points.
“I thought we had a good game to win. There are several things that we will watch on video and that we will criticize. It was a hotly contested game and we didn’t do what was necessary to win,” Payton commented afterwards.
A fatal twist
Getty Images via AFP
The play that hurt even more was when quarterback Jarrett Stidham did the irreparable by attempting a backwards pass, obviously without meaning to.
The Patriots got the ball back and had just 12 yards to go to score their only touchdown of the game, on a run by quarterback Drake Maye. If he had instead taken the hit by protecting the ball, his team would have cleared and field position clearly would not have been as advantageous for the Patriots.
“I had no right to put our team in this situation. It’s completely my fault. I was convinced I was throwing the pass forward, but regardless, I should have taken the sack and let our team punt,” admitted Stidham, who had only started four career games.
His inexperience and nervousness came out because after this blunder, the attack did almost nothing of value.
“Our defense played an outstanding game. What our guys on defense did was honestly impressive. This defeat is hard for me to swallow because I put our defense in an impossible position,” he said of the Broncos’ defensive brigade, which limited the Patriots to 12 first plays.
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