Late in their Week 2 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Denver Broncos were down by seven points and getting ready to kick off. With just 1 minute and 54 seconds left on the clock and only one timeout in their pockets, the Broncos had a seemingly very obvious choice to make. Should they attempt an onside kick and try to get the ball back quickly, or should they kick away, try to get a stop, and perhaps get the ball back with south of 30 seconds remaining?
Sean Payton surprisingly opted for the latter choice. The Broncos kicked it deep. They got their stop, holding the Steelers to six yards on three rushing attempts. But the Steelers were able to run 1 minute and 36 seconds off the clock before even having to punt. And after Marvin Mims Jr. tried to return the punt, Denver had all of nine seconds left to try to go 81 yards to the end zone.
Why did Payton make the choice he did?
"We spent a lot of time going through it, back-and-forth," Payton said in his postgame press conference. "We had plenty of time to discuss it. There was a player down. We felt like our odds -- the long run on third down prior to them punting took about six seconds. We were hopeful to have 2-3 plays before we went to the end zone. It was just weighing the odds versus recovering an onside kick or getting the ball back with 26 seconds, so we chose to kick off."
Frankly, the explanation doesn't really hold water. The Broncos had barely moved the ball all day against the Steelers, so the idea that they were going to march 70-plus yards in less than 30 seconds -- in the absolute best-case scenario -- against one of the NFL's best defenses doesn't pass muster. The best way for the Broncos to try to steal a win was to try to steal an onside kick recovery. Payton chose the other route, and it didn't work. He should have just admitted the mistake after the game.
