Sean Payton: Blocked field goal wasn’t just on players

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sean Payton did what coaches should do Monday in the wake of a single misfire that turns a potential franchise-altering victory into the most crushing defeat in years. He absorbed the blame as part of the collective.

So, while Alex Forsyth was at the point of attack on the fateful, final play of Sunday’s 16-14 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, finding himself run over by a Chiefs field-goal rush targeted at his spot, Payton looked beyond to ascertain blame for the chip-shot field-goal try that went horribly wrong.

“This isn’t on the player. This is on all of us. This is on us as coaches,” Payton said. “We’ve got to continue to look at hey, you know are we big enough stature-wise there for that And understanding how the rush was coming.”

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Forsyth had been knocked to the ground by opponents seven times on placekicks in the previous two games, including twice Sunday prior to the final attempt.

In the wake of the game, Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal — who burst through and blocked Wil Lutz’s 35-yard attempt, told Pro Football Talk that the team spotted a weakness in the left flank of the field-goal protection scheme.

“They felt like they had an indication relative to how [Forsyth’s] weight was balanced. All of that is game planning, scouting and then it’s us coaching and looking at the self-scout,” Payton said. “Again, it’s nothing new.”

Kansas City’s special-teams coach is Dave Toub, who interviewed for the Broncos’ head-coaching job in 2017 and has long been regarded as one of the NFL’s premier special-teams strategists. And the Chiefs have had a habit of making plays in that phase at the Broncos’ expense, including a blocked field-goal attempt last season during the Broncos’ 24-9 win that snapped Kansas City’s 16-game winning streak in the series.

“Look, when, when something like [the blocked field goal] happens … it could be a trick play or it could be whatever, it’s pretty common for the team that had success with it to say, ‘Hey, we saw,’ and credit them for that,” Payton said.

“They exploited an area that we obviously felt was fixed and stronger — and yet not fixed enough.”