{"id":434682,"date":"2026-01-26T17:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T17:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/434682\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T17:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T17:26:09","slug":"broncos-vs-patriots-sean-payton-regrets-fourth-down-call-in-afc-championship-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/434682\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos vs. Patriots: Sean Payton regrets fourth-down call in AFC Championship loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Any number of plays could have flipped the other direction and aided the Denver Broncos<\/a> in their 10-7 loss<\/a> to the New England Patriots<\/a>, but coach Sean Payton dwelled on one call that loomed particularly large after the AFC Championship Game. Payton said there are always “regrets” and “second thoughts” when given the benefit of hindsight. That is the case with regard to a fourth-down decision.<\/p>\n

The Broncos held a 7-0 lead and enjoyed a healthy dose of early momentum when they knocked on the door of extending their advantage. Instead of attempting a chip-shot field goal to go up by 10, though, Payton left his offense on the field on fourth-and-1 at the New England 14-yard line. Quarterback Jarrett Stidham<\/a> threw and incomplete pass, the Broncos turned the ball over on downs and the absence of three points was, in the end, the difference between overtime and a season-ending loss.<\/p>\n

“You don’t know that it’s going to be this three-point game, but it became apparent that with each possession, a field goal, that type of thing was going to be real important,” Payton said<\/a>. “We weren’t able to get it done. It’s tough, especially in this game.”<\/p>\n

Payton rued that the Broncos failed to capitalize on their positive field position for most of the first half. A touchdown on the second drive of the contest was all the scoring they mustered against a Patriots defense that has stepped up its game this postseason. He said the missed opportunities start with the head coach and the rest of the staff.<\/p>\n

“I just felt like, man, we had momentum to get up 14,” Payton said. “It felt like we had a good call. I think the feeling was, man, let’s be aggressive to get up 14. I was just watching the way our defense was playing. \u2026 There will be a number of things when we watch the tape I’ll look at and critique and pay close attention to.”<\/p>\n

To his credit, Payton’s defense did have the look of one that was going to dictate the flow of the game. Prior to the ill-fated fourth-down call, the Broncos forced three punts on three defensive drives with a pair of those coming as results of three-and-outs. Weather also played a critical role<\/a> in the game as both offenses trudged through heavy snow for most of the second half.<\/p>\n

Not only did the result of that turnover on downs open the door for the Patriots to eventually tie and take the lead, but the play call itself was a point of regret for Payton, who initially dialed up a run but instead switched to a pass.<\/p>\n

“There was a clock stoppage, so we had a nickel run called, and then I don’t know if there was a timeout or they called one, but it’s a slipper naked that we’ve run pretty well,” Payton said. “They played a 6-1 front with kind of a two-deep shell. Hindsight, the initial sub-run was a better decision.”<\/p>\n

With Denver’s quest for the Super Bowl<\/a> reaching a disappointing conclusion, attention turns now to Bo Nix<\/a> as he recovers from ankle surgery<\/a> and to the front office as it constructs next year’s roster<\/a> around him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Any number of plays could have flipped the other direction and aided the Denver Broncos in their 10-7…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[175597,2215,180680,180684,180683,180682,180685,180686,49,48,1743,174962,1718,514,180681,82,19501],"class_list":["post-434682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-afc-championship-game","tag-bo-nix","tag-broncos-play-calling","tag-broncos-quarterback","tag-broncos-stats","tag-broncos-updates","tag-broncos-vs-patriots","tag-broncos-vs-patriots-updates","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-denver-broncos","tag-jarrett-stidham","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-nfl","tag-sean-payton-decision","tag-sports","tag-super-bowl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}