DENVER — A head coach makes several dozen decisions on game day, not just the one or two that feed the conversations on sports talk radio.
For instance, deactivating Ronnie Perkins from the game-day roster Sunday night for the matchup against the Minnesota Vikings was a decision Broncos’ head coach Sean Payton made that left the team in the unusual predicament of only having three outside linebackers dressed – Baron Browning, Jonathon Cooper and Nik Bonitto. (Rookie inside linebacker Drew Sanders, who didn’t play a single defensive snap, could have been used had an outside linebacker twisted an ankle).
Payton made two other uncommon decisions during the game Sunday that were otherwise overlooked amid the number of crazy twists of the Broncos’ 21-20 comeback win.
One, the decision to have kicker Wil Lutz boot a short, 31-yard field goal rather than go for it on fourth and short. The Broncos were down 10-3 at the time of the decision. There were 4 minutes, 11 seconds left in the first half. It was fourth and 2 at the Vikings’ 12.
RELATED: Primetime excitement: Broncos rally behind more Wilson to Sutton magic, defeat Vikings, 21-20
There are modern-day analytic modules that spit out go for it if it’s fourth and 3 or less.
Payton took the old-school approach (some would say a conservative approach) to take the sure 3 points. When the Broncos won by 1 point, 21-20, the decision upon review was smart, not conservative.
“There’s certain weeks we’re going to be more aggressive,’’ Payton said Monday morning in his day-after-game Zoom media conference call. “[If] we’re playing Kansas City and we think we’re going to have to score X number of points. Or we’re playing a team where you feel like the game is where field goals won’t decide it.
“And then sometimes you trust your gut relative to the way you’re playing and the opponent you’re playing and glad I did,” he said.
A second unusual decision: There’s 3 minutes, 7 seconds left in the game, the Broncos are trailing 20-15, and it’s third and 10 at their own 25 yard line. Payton called for a handoff to Samaje Perine. A run play on third and 10 all but assures the game will come down to fourth down, do or die.
Better believe the Vikings’ defense weren’t expecting a run. Perine – who takes a backseat to Javonte Williams and even rookie Jaleel McLaughlin for much of the game until he is sent in for the rescue at the end of each half – gained 7 yards, bringing up fourth and 3.
Payton wasn’t afraid of fourth down. In fact, he planned for it. The Broncos converted on an alley-oop pass from quarterback Russell Wilson to Courtland Sutton, who made a one-handed catch for a 13-yard gain and fourth-down conversion.
“You’re in a two-play situation there, and we got a lot more coverage last night, third down,’’ Payton said. “There’s a pressure [blitz] look they give you, they bail out, they play their coverage. They play prevent. They were injured at corner, so they had a new starter in the game [rookie Mekhi Blackmon].
“Probably the one thing schematically, we just talked about it as a staff – we always, when the game’s over with, we talk … all right, if we played them again this upcoming weekend, what we would do different? And offensively one of the topics was invest more in some of the two-deep coverage looks that we got relative to having answers. So fortunately, we had a gain there [with Perine’s run] ,and we converted on fourth down.”
Wilson then hit Perine for four consecutive short passes, totaling another 40 yards, setting up the 15-yard, game-winning touchdown pass to Sutton with 1:03 remaining.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Sports
9NEWS+ has multiple live daily shows including 9NEWS Mornings, Next with Kyle Clark and 9NEWS+ Daily, an original streaming program. 9NEWS+ is where you can watch live breaking news, weather updates, and press conferences. You can also replay recent newscasts and find videos on demand of our top stories, local politics, investigations and Colorado specific features.
To download 9NEWS+ on Roku search for KUSA.
To download 9NEWS+ on Fire TV search for 9NEWS.