For teams that lose in the playoffs, their season often comes down to one or two poor decisions, and that was definitely the case for the Denver Broncos yesterday. Coach Sean Payton and backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham were the culprits in yesterday’s 10-7 loss to the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game, and Payton expressed “regrets” about his second-quarter gaffe.
The mistake happened with the Broncos driving and deep in New England territory. On fourth-and-1, Payton chose to go for it, even though the wind was already an issue and the snow would soon arrive. He said he considered a running play, but instead he chose a quick flip by Stidham to running back RJ Harvey was broken up, and the Broncos turned the ball over on downs.
"I just felt like, man, we had momentum, to get up 14 [points], felt like we had a good call,'' Payton said in a story written by Jeff Legwold of ESPN. "I think the feeling was, man, let's be aggressive. You know, to get up 14, I was just watching the way our defense was playing.''
The defense was playing lights-out, but so was New England’s, and in less than an hour offensive football became close to impossible. Denver never got back in the red zone after that, and the call changed the complexion of the game.
Stidham also made his mistake in the second quarter, but it was a completely different error. The Broncos were deep in their own territory when Patriots linebacker Christian Elliss pressured Stidham on a third down play, and a botched throwaway resulted in a backwards pass that was ruled a fumble. New England recovered, and two plays later quarterback Drake Maye ran it in from 6 yards out, so Stidham ended up handing New England a touchdown.
“Obviously, I can’t put our team in a bad position like that,’' Stidham said in a story written by Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. “I was trying to throw it away. ... The pressure, he just got up on me real fast and I was just trying to get rid of it. That was completely on me.”
The big picture problems, according to Payton, was that Denver’s three first-possessions that started from the Broncos 40 or better resulted in just one touchdown, and that wasn’t enough to get it done.
The Broncos offense sputtered after that as the weather-related conditions took over in the second half, and Denver never got a viable chance to make up for those mistakes. And as tackle Mike McGlinchey noted, they’ll have to live with them now for the rest of their offseason.