Peyton Manning Begs Nathaniel Hackett to Call Timeout on Live TV

The Denver Broncos Ring-of-Famer couldn't believe what he was seeing on Monday night.

If you were among the throng of Denver Broncos fans screaming at your TV for head coach Nathaniel Hackett to call a timeout around the 55-second mark of Monday night's loss to the Seattle Seahawks, you weren't alone. Peyton Manning, on his ESPN show Manningcast, alongside his brother Eli Manning, was perplexed at Hackett's decision.

Instead, down by one point at the Seahawks' 46-yard line, Hackett drained the clock down on a 4th-&-5 to 20 seconds left, wasting more than 30 seconds. Then, instead of using that timeout to dial up the right play for Russell Wilson on fourth down, to get a little bit closer for a field-goal try, Hackett trotted out Brandon McManus for a 64-yard attempt at sea level. 

Manning, gesticulating the timeout movement with his hands, grimacing and maybe even grinding his teeth, couldn't quite believe what he was seeing as he watched and discussed Denver's game in real-time. Adding to the mix was Broncos Hall-of-Fame tight end Shannon Sharpe, who punctuates this clip perfectly. 

Peyton: "We've got three timeouts, 'E.' I might use one right here. Let's use one. Let's talk about this one... They might try to draw them offsides, 'E'."

Eli: "They don't have that much time. You don't want to waste that much time, I don't think." 

Peyton: "I think we should call a timeout, like, now."

Eli: "They look unsettled. Sutton doesn't know what he was doing."

And when it all culminated with Wilson calling timeout as the play-clock wound down, Sharpe said what we all were thinking.

Sharpe: "So you just burned 30 seconds to call timeout?" 

Peyton Manning would have handled the final minute different than Denver did…. pic.twitter.com/yRqlxjFDQ3

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 13, 2022

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Broncos fans have every right to be scratching their heads Tuesday morning, second-guessing whether Hackett has the wherewithal to truly be an upgrade over the Vance Josephs and Vic Fangios of yore. Back to the drawing board, I guess. 

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