Denver Broncos rookie head coach Nathaniel Hackett admitted on Tuesday what we all already knew: he was wrong — but only in hindsight.
A day after Hackett’s decision to attempt a 64-yard field goal instead of going for it on fourth-and-5 with Russell Wilson, and not using his three timeouts until running the clock down for the kick, the Broncos rookie head coach admitted it was the wrong call.
“Looking back at it, we definitely should have gone for it,” Hackett told reporters on Tuesday, via ProFootballTalk. “Just one of those things, you look back at it, and you say, ‘Of course we should go for it. We missed the field goal.’
“But in that situation we had a plan. We knew the 46 was the mark.”
The latter half of Hackett’s comments suggest that it was only the wrong decision because it simply did not work.
But a 64-yard field goal would have been a career-long for Brendan McManus and tied the second-longest field goal in NFL history had he made it — so the odds were stacked against them.
The Broncos, who had all three timeouts, could have elected to use one with 1:11 remaining after failing to convert on third down.
While there would have been risk of losing the game, had they converted they would have been able to get into better field goal position with two timeouts left to spare.
We will see if Hackett, who is a head coach for the first time in his career after spending the last three years as the offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers, will indeed learn from his mistake.
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