Did Nathaniel Hackett Blame Russell Wilson For Broncos’ Late-Game Error?

Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett seemingly doesn’t want to be on the hook for Russell Wilson’s late-game decision, one that cost Denver in a Week 11 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.

Leading 16-13 coming out of the two-minute warning, Wilson and the Broncos faced a third-and-10 at the Denver 34-yard line. The Raiders had no timeouts, and Denver could have chewed off even more clock with a completed pass or run. Wilson instead opted to mindlessly throw the ball some 18 yards downfield, resulting in an incomplete pass that stopped the clock at 1:43 remaining.

After a Denver punt, Las Vegas covered 71 yards in seven plays on the ensuing possession. The Raiders kicked a game-tying field goal with 16 seconds left in regulation and proceeded to win the game 22-16 in overtime on a touchdown to Davante Adams. Had the Broncos kept the clock running on that third down, taking another 40 seconds off, the Raiders would have had a much more difficult time getting into field-goal range.

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Hackett faced questions about the decision after the loss. The first-year head coach admitted the Broncos called a pass play on third-and-10, but he also indicated his message to Wilson was to keep the clock running no matter what.

“We were discussing whether or not we wanted to run the ball. We wanted to give ourselves a chance to be able to close the game out and win it. So we called a pass,” Hackett told reporters after the game, per the team. “You got to keep the clock running one way or the other. Whether you take a shot down the field and you try to go up, maybe get a (pass interference) opportunity because if you do catch it, you have a chance to win the game, and it’s great. If it doesn’t, the one thing we just want to be sure that the clock is running if we can unless we have a chance for a shot to win the game.”

Hackett added: “We communicated we wanted to be able to take a shot down the field. We knew what kind of coverage they were going to be in, but if something happened in the pocket or anything like that, that’s one of those situations you can take a sack or you can just run the ball. But we obviously wanted the clock running in that situation.”

The Broncos fell to 3-7 with the loss, which served as the latest backbreaking verdict for Denver fans.