Grabbing the wheel of the clown car driven by Nathaniel Hackett, quarterback Russell Wilson rode to the rescue of Broncos Country.
Wilson saved a clueless rookie head coach from himself, leading a fourth-quarter comeback to beat lowly Houston 16-9 on Sunday as the buzzards came out and let the home team know that all this gratuitous trash has to stop.
“I don’t blame them,” Hackett said. “I mean, hell, I’d kill myself. I was very frustrated.”
Let’s pause to be thankful that the Broncos find a way to beat one of the NFL’s worst teams in spite of themselves.
“All I really care about is the cheers at the end because we won,” said Wilson, whose 22-yard strike to Eric Saubert with 12 minutes, 36 seconds left in the fourth quarter proved all it took to win Houston. it was one miserable landing.
Denver won and improved its record to 1-1 despite repeated red-zone atrocities; despite 13 bonehead penalties, including a delay-of-game offense on a field goal attempt; despite sending the punt return team onto the field without anyone to launch the punt; despite running out of timeouts midway through the fourth quarter, and despite so much brain freeze from Hackett that I’m starting to wonder if his gray matter is made of Dippin’ Dots.
“This has to stop,” Hackett said, looking like he needed a hug.
But what this team needs more than a bro-hug is an intervention. Hackett needs someone to explain the big picture to him in real time. He needs a reliable voice to untangle the cobwebs in his brain.
We talk about it all the time with newbies who overthink everything. For all his bragging about being a coach’s son, the speed of the NFL game was simply too much for Hackett. We knew Mike Shanahan, whose son is coming to town next weekend as coach of the Niners, and Hackett is no mastermind.
Through two weeks, Hackett is now 0-6 at converting red-zone trips into touchdowns as a play-caller. Instead of slamming the ball into the end zone behind steamroller running back Javonte Williams, it seems Hackett is prone to making gooey eyes at his offensive play sheet and falling for a pretty one.
Let’s hope it’s not a fatal attraction.
But after averaging 16 points per game with a quarterback paid around $45 million a year, I’m starting to wonder if Hackett is little more than former offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur with a more likable personality but no better ideas.
On the side, Hackett has the look of “Jeopardy!” a contestant who eagerly buzzes in without a clue as to what the correct answer is, much less the composure to put his answer in the form of a question. Anyone else besides me getting flashbacks to Vance Joseph and Vic Fangio?
Hackett seems to have difficulty organizing his thoughts, let alone the team on the field. In the long and storied history of this franchise, the Broncos have never committed a total of 25 penalties in back-to-back games. Until now.
I asked Hackett if the process of running the offense and serving as CEO of game-day operations was more difficult than he anticipated.
“No,” Hackett replied, vowing that the slow communication between him and Wilson was something he would clean up.
OK, the Broncos have problems besides the fire alarms going off in Hackett’s head. An already battered Denver lineup lost quarterback Jerry Jeudy and cornerback Pat Surtain II to injury during the game. In consecutive weeks, Wilson was surpassed by quarterbacks named Geno Smith and Davis Mills for huge parts of the game.
At the end of three quarters, with the Broncos trailing Houston 9-6, Wilson was playing at a level that might embarrass Drew Lock. He completed 9 of 23 passes for 116 yards, with an interception. His QB rating was 37.6. In a word: pathetic.
But then Wilson showed his championship pedigree. The veteran quarterback rallied his teammates to talk them off the ledge.
“Russ knelt down in the crowd and told us, ‘Hey, look. If we want to become a championship team, a team that goes deep into the playoffs and wins championships, these are situations we have to master,’ ” Denver quarterback Courtland Sutton said.
During the final period, when the Broncos needed a hero to save them from Hackett, Wilson completed 5 of 8 passes for 103 yards and a touchdown for a 145.8 rating that would do justice to Tom Brady.
Wilson led the Broncos back from the brink of disaster with his words and deeds.
“One thing I’ll never do,” Wilson said, “I’ll never blink.”
When the Broncos desperately needed it, Wilson gave them a reason to believe.
But, at this point, can anyone in Broncos Country trust this coach not to drive this team into the ditch?
