ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — On second thought, Denver Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett said Tuesday he “definitely” should have let quarterback Russell Wilson run a fourth-and-5 play in the final seconds of the loss Monday night in Seattle instead of sending kicker Brandon. McManus out for a 64-yard field goal attempt.
“Looking back on it, I definitely should have gone,” Hackett said. “One of those things, you look back and say ‘of course we should have gone for it, we missed the field goal.’ But in that situation we had a plan, we knew 46 was the mark.”
McManus’ field goal attempt sailed wide left, and Hackett’s decision overshadowed almost everything else in his regular-season debut as a head coach.
Only two kickers in the NFL since 1960 have even attempted field goals of at least 64 yards, and the longest field goal in Lumen Field history is 56 yards.
McManus, who has one of the strongest legs of any kicker in the league, is still 1-for-5, including Monday night’s miss, on attempts of at least 60 yards in his career. Also, last season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research, teams converted 48 percent of their fourth-and-five plays.
Hackett said he understood how few kickers have attempted at least 64 yards — only Matt Prater’s 64-yarder in 2013 and Justin Tucker’s record 66-yarder in 2021 — but that’s after talking to special teams coaches as well . like McManus before the game, they had decided that if the team reached the Seahawks’ 46-yard line at the end of the half or at the end of the game, McManus would attempt the kickoff.
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Wilson had been informed of the decision that a quarterback field goal attempt would occur if the Broncos reached the Seahawks 46 on third down before the Broncos faced the decision on their final drive. On a third-and-14, Wilson completed a 9-yard pass to running back Javonte Williams that moved the ball to the Seattle 46.
Hackett said Tuesday that if Williams had gained even 1 less yard “we would have gone for it.”
“We said 46 yards, the 46-yard line was where we wanted to be,” Hackett said. “… It didn’t work, it sucks, but hey, that’s part of it.
“That’s part of being in this seat, being in this profession. These things are going to happen all the time, they’ve happened to me throughout my career, even when my dad was coaching, you’re prepared for it, you understand . I have to keep grinding.”
Hackett also said “we shouldn’t have been in this situation” as the Broncos lost two fumbles in the game on plays that started from the Seahawks 1 on back-to-back possessions in the third quarter and had another drive derailed with a false start penalty at the Seahawks 3. Wilson finished the game with 340 yards passing as the Broncos outgained the Seahawks 433-253 overall.
The Broncos defense also held the Seahawks offense scoreless to just 34 total yards in the second half.
“At the end of the day, that’s up to me, that was our plan, that was the yard line we had to get to, we all knew that, that’s what we said in the meeting before we did it,” Hackett said . “It should never have come to this…Obviously the last decision is the one where you’re going to say I should have done this, I should have done that, but I think the thing that frustrates me the most is the red zone . many chances, we were inches away.”