After electing to kick a 29-yard field goal to make it a 13-6 game with 1:54 left in the fourth quarter, it appeared that Denver Broncos’ head coach Sean Payton was going to try an onside kick in the one-score game with just one timeout left.
Instead, Payton surprised everyone, electing to go for the usual kickoff under the new rules, giving the ball to the Pittsburgh Steelers on a touchback, which then allowed the Steelers to force the Broncos to burn their final timeout and not get the ball back until just 18 seconds were left in the game.
After the 13-6 loss to the Steelers, Payton explained the decision to not attempt an onside kick.
“Yeah, we spent a lot of time going through it, looking back and forth. We had plenty of time to discuss it. There was a player down,” Payton said of the decision, according to video via the Broncos’ Twitter page. “We felt like our odds, the long run on third down prior to them punting, took about 6 seconds. We were hopeful to have two or three 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.”
So, instead of going for the onside kick and potentially recovering, even with the odds low, Payton elected to kickoff to the Steelers, let them run the clock down, trusting the defense to get a three-and-out, and then hope to make some magic happen with 26 seconds or left.
That seems rather puzzling, but it made sense to Payton in the moment, though it drew quite a bit of criticism overall.
As a reminder, the NFL changed the kickoff rules this season, and that included onside kick rules as well. With the new kickoff rules, teams are now only permitted to onside kick in the fourth quarter when trailing and must be declared to the officials prior to attempting them.
In that situation, it seemed pretty obvious that the Broncos were going to go for the onside kick. Instead, Payton elected not to, giving the ball back to the Steelers’ offense with just one timeout in his pocket. Immediately after a first-down run to Najee Harris, Payton burned that timeout.
That then allowed the Steelers to run the ball on second and third down, milk the clock, take their own timeout with one second on the play clock and then punt the ball back to the Broncos.
Steelers’ new punter Corliss Waitman banged a 54-yard punt to the Broncos’ 10-yard line and practice squad wide receiver elevation Ben Skowronek made a key special teams tackle on Broncos’ returner Marvin Mims Jr., keeping the Broncos pinned at their own 19.
Two plays later, Damontae Kazee picked off Broncos’ QB Bo Nix, sealing the Steelers’ win.
Who knows what would have happened if Payton went for the onside kick. Maybe the Broncos recover and get a shot at a miracle, and maybe the Steelers recover and quickly get into field goal range for Chris Boswell. But electing to not go for the onside kick while down a touchdown and with one timeout left was puzzling, and it was made all the more confusing by Payton’s explanation.
