Details are still surfacing about the Denver Broncos’ 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game yesterday, and many of them are focused on just how difficult the wintry conditions were. One of the more remarkable ones involves kicker Wil Lutz, who may have had what could have been the game-tying field goal tipped because Lutz couldn’t see the yardage markers on the field.
This story surfaced in at least two outlets today, one by Nick Kosmider of The Athletic and the other written by Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk. The specifics might seem like minutia, but having the holder line up seven yards behind the long snapper instead of the usual eight gave New England lineman Leonard Williams III the opportunity he needed.
“Unfortunately, you couldn't see the lines on the field and honestly, I think we were — we might have been a yard short on the snap,” Lutz said. “Can’t see the lines on the field and we had to kind of estimate, and a guy comes through, and it was blocked.”
One thing that’s at least slightly amazing is that the Broncos failed to take advantage of home field advantage in this regard. Denver had sideline people coming out to clear the yardage markers, in part because they’re necessary for the TV broadcast—the announcers couldn’t identify them at times, either—but they didn’t have them available for their own kicker at crucial moments?
It’s a failure that’s startling, especially given coach Sean Payton’s reputation for being on top of every last detail in every single game. Lutz got hung out to dry to at least some extent with this, and there was little or nothing he could do about it.
The simple fact is that playing the field position game in this particular contest was doomed from the start. The kicking game was a mess, although punter Jeremy Crawshaw had some stellar moments throughout the game, consistently pinning New England inside the 20 with coffin-corner kicks which have become something of a specialty for him in his rookie season.
Lutz, meanwhile, has a reputation as one of the best clutch kickers in the game, and it was tough for him to not be able to do that through no fault of his own.
“It sucks when you want to be there to help the team, and I wasn’t able to do that,” Lutz said.
The Broncos had plenty of football luck go their way throughout the season, but yesterday it ran out on them at the worst possible moment. As tackle Mike McGlinchey noted, it was virtually impossible to throw a forward pass accurately, much less drive a ball accurately through the uprights for any kind of distance.