The Denver Broncos have faced their fair share of criticism this year, and rightfully so. In the spirit of the holidays, that trend didn’t stop after some head-scratching coaching mistakes on Sunday in the team’s latest loss.
The New England Patriots came away with a last-second win over Denver via a field goal that possibly could have been avoided had it not been for Broncos coach Sean Payton. New England had the ball in the final minute with the score tied 23–23, and all signs looked as if the Patriots were ready to pack it in for overtime. After all, the New England offense started its final drive at its own 19-yard line and began the drive with two rushing plays.
Instead, Payton elected to use two of his timeouts in order to preserve time for his own offense, seemingly sure the Broncos would get the ball back. But they didn’t.
The timeouts ended up helping the Patriots sustain their drive, and they were able to march down the field for the eventual winning 56-yard field goal from Chad Ryland. After the catastrophic loss, which severely hampers Denver’s playoff hopes, Payton explained his thought process, but that didn’t save him from widespread criticism.
"We felt like we'd get the stop. We weren't able to, and then all the sudden the script flipped."
– Sean Payton on calling timeouts after Patriots runs pic.twitter.com/yBmE4zHFYs
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) December 25, 2023
“We felt like we’d get the stop,” Payton said after the 26–23 loss. “We weren’t able to, then and all of a sudden the script flipped, and that’s one of those seven or eight things that’s disgusting.”
Here are some of the best reactions from NFL fans to Payton’s blunder:
We fumbled a top 2 pick because Sean Payton took 2 useless timeouts pic.twitter.com/nWbtP8dFTi
— Peter Kelly (@PeteGKelly) December 25, 2023
Sean Payton calling those timeouts when patriots conceding for OT. pic.twitter.com/en1H9lzGYF
— P (@ptothetam) December 25, 2023
Sean Payton had the worst coaching job I’ve seen from a Denver coach outside of Hackett last year. So much time wasted in the 4th & then when the Pats were fine going to OT he calls two timeouts which let the Pats still have their TO to setup the game winning FG. #BroncosCountry pic.twitter.com/a7yg51rvgp
— Trent M. (@tmac_307) December 25, 2023
Payton calling timeouts when patriots were just trying to run clock out which lead to Pat Surtain getting torched which lost the game. Absolute gem of a loss from Denver.
— CSU RAM NATION (@CsuRamsNation) December 25, 2023
Whatever happens, those were some Brandon Staley-like timeouts from Sean Payton
— Alex Barth (@RealAlexBarth) December 25, 2023
Sean Payton trying to explain why he was calling timeouts pic.twitter.com/FPeSXz4qXw
— Bobby Witt jr. fan page (@userthree_33) December 25, 2023