With the Denver Broncos postseason hopes all but over, more and more questions are being raised about what exactly went wrong this season with Coach Hackett, Russell Wilson, and the offense.
According to Nathaniel Hackett, the struggles we’ve seen from Wilson can’t be pinned on any one problem.
“It’s a combination of a lot of different things,” Coach Hackett told the media on Monday. “There is some semblance of newness with this whole group. We’ve had a lot of changes throughout the offense with different people that have been out there playing with him. We need to give him the confidence back to be able to make the plays that he can make. He’s out there and he’s fighting every single play. I give him so much credit. He’s taking a bunch of hits and it’s because he’s trying to do everything he can to make a play. I appreciate that and how he’s doing that. Everybody has to play better around him.”
As bad as it’s been this season, the offense somehow seemed to reach a new low on Sunday, against a miserable Carolina Panthers squad.
“Unfortunately, we started out backed up,” Coach Hackett said, to explain what went haywire this week. “We had that minus yardage play right out the gate. Then we’re in a farther long down and distance with a third-down, so it’s hard to get a rhythm there. Then we started out minus ten, I believe. We had an opportunity for a third-and-two, I believe. We didn’t convert on that—or third-and-three. Just those two drives, you can look at each one and there’s a critical play within each one that stalls the drive. We have to eliminate those so that we have the ability to continue a drive.”
Coach Hackett also discussed, what seemed to be, a public flare up on the sidelines between Mike Purcell and Russell Wilson.
“When we were out there, I obviously was addressing Mike [Purcell] on the personal foul that he had,” Hackett said. “Talking with him as he passed by me, I heard him say, ‘Let’s go’. I did not know that it was directed to any specific person. It looked like he wanted everybody to start going. He wanted to get a spark. That was really all that I heard. I talked with Mike [Purcell] after, talked with Russell [Wilson]—everybody. Everybody is good. It’s a part of it. It’s an emotional game.”
The Denver Broncos have been consistent across the board in sharing their version of the dustup, though Broncos Country seems to remain doubtful that was the only thing at play.
No matter what the problem is, and no matter who’s responsible, the Broncos are almost out of time to right the ship.
