Nathaniel Hackett
Denver Broncos Head Coach – Nathaniel Hackett took a courageous decision in his team’s season opener against the Seattle Seahawks, when he tried to seal the win with a 64-yard kick. While analysts and media all around the globe decided to condemn the 42-year-old coach for taking such a step, Skip Bayless stands on the other side.
Given that Bayless is one of the boldest and most brutal analysts in and around the States, the veteran sports media personality applauded the decision of Nathaniel Hackett. Given that the Broncos’ offense wasn’t at their sheer best on Monday night, averaging 6.8 yards per play. It was the length and duration of their scoring drives, which made Hackett take a firm decision.
Discussing the criticism received by Nathaniel Hackett, Skip quoted on the latest episode of Undisputed, “He showed some big guts last night because he made a hellacious decision on the fly at the end of his first game. To say ‘you know what…I don’t like the way my Quarterback is moving the football,’ I would say that is fair.”
Even Nathaniel Hackett told the media after the game that his players were not moving the football in big chunks, which eventually made him take such a bizarre and rare call against the Vikings. That being said, it does look like that majority of the analysts still place the blame on Nathaniel Hackett’s choice to go for the ill-fated field goal on Monday night.
But one has to understand that when the Denver Broncos did find themselves around the red zone, they squandered their chances on making it count. Running backs Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon III, each fumbled near the goal line on ack-to-back drives in the third quarter – which could have been the marginal difference at the end. Result of which a 14-point swing could have turned the tide of the game in Hackett’s favor.
Interestingly, as per CBS Sports, Russell Wilson – the main man for Denver Broncos has converted fourth and 5 or less 68.6% of the time in his career while kicks from that distance were only successful 6.1% of the mentioned time.