Sean Payton says he was ‘salty’ last week, Broncos must ‘play better’ in postseason

Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton held nearly a 30-minute press conference on Friday afternoon.

And while he was generally in a good mood, he also got some things off his chest.

The Broncos won each of the last two weeks, but didn’t do it in real convincing fashion against the banged-up Chiefs and Chargers.

Denver beat Kansas City 20-13 on Christmas night, needing a late touchdown to top third-string QB Chris Oladokun. Against Los Angeles without Justin Herbert and several other key players, the Broncos scored only field goals on offense in a 19-3 win. The lone touchdown was a pick-six.

Sean Payton was asked if he had more of a conservative game-plan given the two weaker opponents, based on who was on the field. He was blunt that wasn’t the case.

“Yeah, I’d like to say that, but you guys know me well enough… we’re going to have to play better. I’d love to say that we pulled a bunch back, but that from last week wasn’t really good offensively. It wasn’t great at Kansas City, either,” Payton said.

Payton could’ve easily said he didn’t want to reveal too much before the playoffs. Instead, he challenged the Broncos to be better.

“Like, we’ve got to be sharper as we get to these next few games here. We’re going to see good teams that can score and we’re going to see good defenses,” Payton said.

With Denver having the No. 1 seed in the AFC, they’re on a bye week. The opponent is yet to be determined for the divisional round, but Sean Payton knows there’s plenty to fix.

“I’m going to be honest with you, our third-down numbers bother me. Each side of the ball we can improve in that area. These games are going to come down to a two-minute, I want those to be competitive,” Payton said. “Yeah, I was a little salty last week.”

Salty isn’t a bad thing from the head coach — that’s better than content after a 14-3 regular season.

But it’s playoff time, and Sean Payton was honest the Broncos will need to play their best football in order to win a Super Bowl next month.

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