Broncos Kicker Assigns Blame After Loss to Patriots

Patriots defensive lineman Leonard Taylor III, who started the season with the New York Jets and got elevated from New England's practice squad on Saturday, got his hand on Lutz's potential game-tying fourth-quarter field goal to send it spinning wide of the left upright.

When asked about what went wrong, Lutz blamed the field conditions for preventing the special teams unit from establishing the correct distance from the line of scrimmage. In his estimation, they should have been one yard deeper, which may have helped the ball get over Taylor's hand.

"Honestly, I think we were, we might have been a yard short on the snap," Lutz said, acknowledging that he needed to see it again to be sure. "You can't see the lines on the field and we had to kind of estimate, and the guy comes through and it gets blocked.”

Lutz, who is in his third season in Denver after spending his first six seasons kicking indoor at home games for the New Orleans Saints, said that he had never kicked in contitions like they faced on Sunday in the AFC championship.

It was not the only mistake that led to the Broncos' loss, but the nature of the kicker position means that an undue amount of scrutiny falls on special teamers like Lutz after tight losses.

Broncos head coach Sean Payton took heat for a controversial decision to not kick a field goal on fourth down when the Broncos led 7-0 in the first half and conditions were clearer.

Then, Denver quarterback Jarett Stidham had a costly turnover right before halftime that led directly to Drake Maye scoring the Patriots' only touchdown of the game on a short field.

Payton shared the blame after the disappointing loss that ended the Broncos' season.

"(The players) played hard," Payton told CBS' Evan Washburn. "Wasn't good enough today. Wasn't good enough by us. Myself."