Sean Payton attempts to explain bizarre decision to not onside kick

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton made a bizarre decision on Sunday in the team’s 13-6 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

After the game he tried to explain it, but the answer didn’t provide much satisfaction.

With the Broncos trailing 13-3 just past the two-minute warning, Payton elected to kick a short field goal with Wil Lutz. That made sense, as it was fourth-down and made the score 13-6, and a one-possession game.

What happened next didn’t add up. With 1:54 on the clock and just one timeout left, Payton chose not to try an onside kick. He gave the Steelers the ball back, knowing full well rookie QB Bo Nix would have very little time to try to go tie the game.

The decision to kick deep set social media ablaze, and Payton was asked about it quickly during his postgame press conference.

“Yeah, we spent a lot of time going through it. Look, back and forth. We had plenty of time to discuss it, there was a player down. We felt like our odds… the long run on third-down prior to them punting took about six seconds. We were hopeful to have about two or three plays before we went to the end zone,” Payton said.

Steelers QB Justin Fields scrambled around a bit on third-down, but the clock was still down to 18 seconds when Pittsburgh had to punt. The punt play took nine seconds, and Nix had just nine seconds on the clock to try to go 81 yards. Basically, an impossible task.

“It was just weighing the odds versus recovering an onside kick. Or getting the ball back with 26 seconds. So, we chose to kickoff,” Payton said.

Well, the Broncos didn’t get the ball with 26 seconds. Instead, one completion from Nix left them with just one second and still needing 66 yards. Nix was picked off on the final play of the game, with the football nowhere near the end zone.

The odds of recovering an onside kick in the NFL, especially now that teams have to declare they’re going to do it, are low. But Sean Payton chose to not even give Denver a chance to do just that.

And instead, gave his team even worse odds to improbably tie the game. The Broncos are now 0-2 on the young season.

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