DENVER — Sean Payton made the gutsiest call in Super Bowl history, ambushing Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts with a stunning onside kick coming out of halftime at Super Bowl 34 to nab the New Orleans Saints’ only Lombardi Trophy.
Payton also ushered in the second chapter of his coaching career by attempting an onside kick against the Las Vegas Raiders in the Denver Broncos’ opener last year.
It failed when cornerback Tremon Smith touched the football just before it had traveled the requisite 10 yards, and that may very well have been the reason Payton lost in his Denver debut. But it proved that he hadn’t abandoned his risk-taking disposition when Greg Penner hired him out of Fox’s broadcast studio.
The NFL’s new kicking rule s have taken away coaches’ ability to pull a fast one on unsuspecting opponents while also making them think long and hard about trying one when desperate times call for it.
Teams can only try it in the fourth quarter now and only if they’re losing. And, most importantly, they have to declare their intention to try an onside kick.
Two teams tried and failed Sunday.
Green Bay’s Evan Williams recovered the Colts’ onside kick with 1:47 remaining and the Packers ran out the clock in their 16-10 victory over Indianapolis.
Shortly thereafter, Minnesota’s Nick Muse recovered the 49ers’ onside kick with 1:12 left and Sam Darnold kneeled out the clock in the Vikings’ 23-17 win.
It appeared the Broncos would become the third team to try it when they cut the Pittsburgh Steelers’ lead to 13-6 on Wil Lutz’s chip-shot field goal with 1:54 remaining in Denver.
But the King of the Onside Kick elected instead to kick off even though he only had one timeout left and rookie quarterback Bo Nix has yet to find the end zone with any of his 77 passes, which rank as the third-most in the league.
“We spent a lot of time going through it back and forth,” Payton said after Nix’s second interception as time expired sealed the Broncos’ loss. “It was just weighing the odds versus recovering an onside kick or getting the ball back with 26 seconds.
“We chose to kick off.”
The Steelers ran three times before newly signed punter Corliss Waitman, who played for the Broncos in 2022 and earned a “ petty game ball ” along with quarterback Russell Wilson and receiver Brandon Johnson afterward, booted a beauty of a 54-yarder to the Denver 10.
Marvin Mims Jr. returned the punt nine yards, leaving the Broncos with 81 yards to go in just 9 seconds.
Josh Reynolds caught Nix’s first-down pass for 13 yards and as he was getting tackled he pitched it to Mims, who raced out of bounds at the Denver 34 with 1 second to spare.
With 66 yards to go, Nix lined up in the shotgun for one final play, stepped up and zipped his 35th pass of the game over the middle where Damontae Kazee easily intercepted it at the Steelers’ 40.
Shunning the onside kick was one of several eyebrow-raising calls by Payton.
Down 13-0 with 10:45 remaining, the Broncos were facing fourth-and-6 at the Pittsburgh 16 when Payton sent Lutz out for the chip-shot field goal that got the Broncos on the scoreboard but left them with the same two-score deficit.
“Time-wise we felt like we were still in a good position, looking at the clock,” Payton explained.
The Broncos’ biggest bugaboo has been their ineffective ground game. With scramble totals of 35 yards and 25 yards, Nix has been Denver’s leading rusher in both of its games.
With rookie Audric Estime sidelined Sunday, the Broncos promoted running back Tyler Badie from their practice squad and on his first carry he reeled off a 16-yard gain midway through the second quarter.
He never got another hand-off even though from that point on, Javonte Williams carried nine times for 10 yards, Jaleel McLaughlin ran once for 7 yards and Nix gained 5 yards on a designed run.
Asked Monday why Badie didn’t get another chance after providing the Broncos with their longest run of the game and second-longest of the season behind Nix’s 23-yard scramble in Seattle, Payton said, “It’s about trying to find touches for the third back.”
“It’s much easier with a rotation of two,” Payton continued. “Getting the third back involved, sometimes it’s special teams, sometimes in the passing game, and it was a good run by him. It’s something we’re — you take notice of it, though. It’s something as a play-caller, as someone who’s looking at the game, I’ve got to be able to see that.”
Baseball has its spitball and football has its … puke pass?
At one point during Green Bay’s win over the Colts, Packers coach Matt LaFleur asked quarterback Malik Willis why he didn’t throw on a particular play. Willis explained that center Josh Myers had just vomited on the football.
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