Broncos HC Intimates Someone Else is Making Clutch Game Decisions

What did Nathaniel Hackett say that has people questioning the Denver Broncos chain of command?

When the top football minds examine the current state of the 2-3 Denver Broncos, they're mostly confused and befuddled.

All the euphoric feelings of hope and optimism surrounding the Broncos, which were generated after the arrival of quarterback Russell Wilson, have spectacularly bottomed out after one month of real action.

Factor in the astonishing slew of injuries, and you have a perfect storm for a massively inexperienced coaching staff to troubleshoot. With fire already in the hole, head coach Nathaniel Hackett reached out for an experienced game management expert, hiring Jerry Rosburg a couple of weeks ago to prop himself up.

Rosburg has had no more than a calming influence thus far, at least to the naked eye, but late on Thursday night, much more many have been revealed. As the Thursday Night Football cameras panned onto the coach’s sky box, Hackett was clearly communicating with Rosburg as the Broncos zeroed in on the winning score in overtime.

There's nothing unusual about that, especially when you consider that neither the play clock nor timeouts were that much of critical concern. Some notable context arrived shortly thereafter, however, during the post-game presser, Hackett appeared to suggest that he was given the green light to go for it on 4th-&-1 with the game on the line in overtime. As in, from up on high. 

“We wanted to win the game,” Hackett said post-game. “We hadn’t moved the ball very well the whole night, and I thought we had a spectacular drive to get all the way down there. It ended up being 4-&-1, and we got the go to go for it.”

What happens next for the Broncos? Don't miss out on any news and analysis! Take a second and sign up for our free newsletter and get breaking Broncos news delivered to your inbox daily!

Coach Hackett may explain it away as a more simplistic turn of phrase, or by re-emphasizing that in his quest to get the final play call just right, it necessitated calling another timeout. Of course, that's all very plausible in a high-pressure situation, and in fairness to him, that's exactly why Rosburg was lured out of retirement in the first place.

However, a chain of command on a listing ship needs to be maintained rigidly. So if Hackett was delegating the games’ biggest decision to a new assistant, it would inevitably set alarm bells ringing in Broncos Country rather loudly.

The Broncos now get some additional time to re-group and sort things out. That process began when both Hackett and Wilson sat in the quarterback’s locker late on Thursday night for some 45 minutes.

As Hackett explained on Friday, the Broncos will put their heads together in the coming days in an attempt to fix things.

“For us, we have to take a breath a little bit to get re-energized,” Hackett said. “We have a long week next week with the Monday night game, but the fact of it is we’re going to work and we’re going to do what we have to do to be able to put the guys in the right position and find the right things to get these guys going. Put them in better positions to be open and better positions in the run game. That’s what we want to do.”

Make no bones about it; Hackett is under intense pressure to get multiple issues ironed out in short order. Suggestions have circulated he might even get canned, but they are probably pretty far wide of the mark at this early juncture.

Still, if Hackett is going to stick around as a head coach, he needs to make it abundantly clear that he is the only man who calls the shots when the game is on the line.

---

Follow Keith on Twitter @KeithC_NFL.

Follow Mile High Huddle on Twitter and Facebook.

Subscribe to Mile High Huddle on YouTube for daily Broncos live-stream podcasts!

Get your Broncos tickets from SI Tickets HERE!