Three fateful decisions by Sean Payton did in the Broncos

It was right there for the taking. The Broncos were poised to punch their first ticket to the playoffs since Super Bowl 50, on the cusp of getting to 10-5 with a huge road win against the Chargers.

Then, an epic collapse ensued.

There are a lot of people to blame. There’s no shortage of culprits. But one stands above the rest.

The Broncos lost on Thursday night because of their head coach. More specifically, Sean Payton’s ego did them in.

It started before the game ever kicked off. Three weeks ago, Denver agreed to have their Week 16 matchup flexed from Sunday to Thursday. That meant a pivotal game, on the road, with playoff implications would be on a short week, putting the Broncos at a big disadvantage.

Why did they agree to do it? Payton wanted the spotlight, as he told his team.

“He’s always had this swag about him,” tight end Adam Trautman said this week about his head coach. “He wants the big spotlight. He believes in taking chances.”

For a little over two quarters, it looked like the gamble would pay off. The Broncos stared off great, grabbing a 21-10 lead after scoring a touchdown on three-straight drives to start the game.

Then, the wheels came off. And the head coach was to blame.

With an 11-point lead, the Broncos took possession at their own 18-yard line with :41 to play in the first half. They were set to receive the second-half kickoff, giving them the opportunity to build upon their 21-10 lead.

But Payton didn’t take the conservative approach. Instead, he tried to score more points before intermission.

That’s okay. Being aggressive is fine. But only to a point.

On first-and-10, Bo Nix completed a pass to Javonte Williams for -3 yards. The clock was running. The ball was at the 15-yard line. Less than 30 seconds were left on the clock and the Chargers were content to let it run out.

Let the half expire. The odds of something good happening in that situation weren’t good.

Yet, Payton decided to throw the ball. And his trusty QB burned him.

Nix through an incomplete pass with :13 seconds left on the clock. That changed everything.

Denver ran the ball on third-and-13, but Jim Harbaugh quickly called a timeout. He wanted to force the Broncos to punt, figuring that anything could happen. And it proved to be a prophetic decision.

Derius Davis called for a fair catch on the kick, but was interfered with on the play by Tremon Smith. The penalty gave the Chargers an untimed down. The fair catch gave them an opportunity to use a little-known rule to put three points on the board. The first free-kick in the NFL since 1976 resulted in a 57-yard field goal that cut the Broncos lead to 21-13.

It was a huge momentum shift. Denver would go on to be outscored 24-6 after Payton’s fateful decision to not let the clock run out to end the half.

But the head coach wasn’t done there. He made another blunder late in the game, this time deciding that he knew better than the analytics department.

Trailing 27-24 with 4:35 to play in the game, the Broncos had the ball at their own 49-yard line, facing a fourth-and-six. Rather than go for it, Payton decided to punt the ball away. He decided to trust his defense, given than Denver had all three timeouts remaining.

It backfired. The Chargers marched 90 yards in a little over two minutes to take a 34-24 lead, effectively ending the game. The decision blew up in Payton’s face, the third such instance on the night.

DEN decided to punt to LAC from the DEN 49 on 4th & 6 with 4:35 remaining in the 4th while losing 24 to 27.

With a Surrender Index of 198.2, this punt ranks at the 100th percentile of cowardly punts of the 2024 season, and the 100th percentile of all punts since 1965.

— Liam Blutman (@Blutman27) December 20, 2024

Payton has done a great job of getting the Broncos into their current position. Almost no one expected them to be 9-6 at this point, just one win away from securing a playoff spot. But he did his team a disservice on Thursday night.

Swagger is good, but arrogance is bad. Deciding to play a pivotal game on a short week just because it provided a chance to get out of the 2:25 p.m. window on Sunday was silly. Trying to score points in the waning seconds of the first half was ill-advised. And not playing the odds by going for it on fourth down near midfield was bad game management.

The Broncos should’ve won on Thursday night, but they didn’t. That’s on a lot of people, but one in particular stands out.

Sean Payton botched the game for Denver.

Follow @jamesmerilatt