Skip Bayless defends Nathaniel Hackett's FG decision: 'Showed some big guts'
It feels like all of sports media is grilling Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett for attempting a 64 yard game winning field goal against the Seahawks. Fox Sports' Skip Bayless, however, applauded the decision.
“He showed some big guts last night because he made a hellacious decision on the fly at the end of his first game,” Bayless said Tuesday on FS1’s Undisputed. “To say 'you know what, I don’t like the way my quarterback is moving the football'…I would say that’s fair to say.”
The Broncos offense wasn’t anemic Monday night, averaging 6.8 yards per play. However, it wasn't making big plays on the final drive, gaining just 32 yards in three minutes and 47 seconds. Denver's previous scoring drive was slow too, taking more than six minutes.
“For me during that time we had been moving it just slightly, they weren’t moving it with big chunks,” Hackett said in the post-game news conference.
When the Broncos did find the red zone, they squandered their opportunities. Running backs Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon III each fumbled near the goal line on consecutive drives in the third quarter. A 14-point swing can turn the tide of the game, obviously.
Analytics still place the blame on Hackett’s choice to go for the ill-fated field goal.
According to CBS Sports, Russell Wilson has converted fourth-and-5 or less 68.8 percent of the time in his career while kicks from that distance were only successful 6.1 percent of the time.
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