ENGLEWOOD, Colo — There where 31 of us media ghouls on the Sean Payton conference call Monday morning, ready to feast a day after the Denver Broncos’ 70-20 disaster in Miami.
No sense waiting. Very first question to the head coach: Any jobs in jeopardy, whether coaches or players?
“No,’’ said Payton, who is off to an 0-3 start in his first season with the Broncos. “And that wouldn’t be something I’d share on a conference call if that ever were the case. So, no, to answer your question.”
Nearly 20 hours after the high-powered, ultra-fast Miami Dolphins scored every which way they wanted while handing the Broncos their worst loss, in terms of points differential and points allowed, in the 64-year history of the franchise, Payton re-directed considerable blame for the debacle on the offense he runs.
“There’s a handful of things that jump out at you,’’ Payton said. “That critical moment in the game where we’re able to hold them on fourth down (on the Dolphins’ 34 with 5 minutes remaining in the first half and the score a manageable 21-10), and offensively then we have a penalty, end up (punting). Right at that juncture of the game we end up scoring 3, they wind up scoring 14 more points.
“The three offensive turnovers all led to touchdowns. That’s 21 points. Typically when you see a score that high the one thing that has to exist is turnovers and all three of them led to points for Miami.’’
Yes, but that’s still 49 points on the Denver defense.
“We did a poor job setting the edge on our defense,’’ Payton said. “They got to the edge early on and often with their toss series or outside crack series. We struggled taking away some of the things we knew he (quarterback Tua Tagovailoa) liked to throw, which was the interior portions of the field. Offensively, we had two touchdowns called back because of penalties. Those are all things that when you look at the tape jump out at you.”
Payton said going forward, attention to detail during practice has to improve. And the coaches have to closely inspect their methods of teaching.
“This is one of those weeks where you take a butt-whupping like that where you find out a lot about everyone,’’ Payton said. “It’s a tough film to watch. I debated whether we were going to show it or not. But I think we’d be remised if we didn’t. We’ve got to sit in here and today as unpleasant as it’s going to be, we’ve got to get these things cleaned up.
“Look, we played a good offense but we certainly didn’t help ourselves in any way, shape or form in playing them.’’
Special teams was a bright spot, Payton said, most notably the 99-yard kickoff return by rookie Marvin Mims Jr. But otherwise, Payton promised Broncos Country the debacle that was the Misadventure in Miami would not happen again.
“To the fans, we’re going to work our tail off and get this ship straightened away,’’ Payton said. “That’s going to happen.’’
Miami Dolphins destroy Denver Broncos
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