On Sunday, the Broncos suffered a gut-wrenching loss to former head coach Nathaniel Hackett and the New York Jets. Hackett never completed a full season as the Broncos head coach, as he was fired before the end of the 2022-2023 season. After his firing, he joined the Jets as their offensive coordinator.

The game against the Broncos was seen as a “revenge” game for the Jets and Hackett, and revenge they did get, beating the Broncos 31-21.

“Obviously, a disappointing loss,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said postgame. “I think it was pretty clear, at least in my eyes, when you look at some statistics — the turnovers come to mind. We talked about the red-zone efficiency. Offensively, we had two drives in the first half [that] both ended up in field goals, and that starts with me. Two negative outside plays.

“We felt like we had a good plan going in, and yet, we ended up kicking field goals. The turnovers, and then defensively, it was a tale of two halves,” Payton continued. “I thought we played them well in the first half, then we allowed a big run in the second half, and then the running game becomes a problem. Three turnovers and a safety, I think, lead to 15 points — tough to win a game like that. I have to do a better job. It starts with me.”

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The game was within reach for the entirety of the game, but poor offensive and defensive performance ultimately crippled the Broncos. The Broncos defense, which is on a historically bad pace, has been the most criticized for the first few weeks of the season.

“No one cares about what ails us or woes us,” Payton said. “They want to see production, and that's the business we're in. We have a quick turnaround, a lot of recovery work tomorrow, a lot of game-plan film tomorrow, and then we're onto practicing for Kansas City. This one hurts. We didn't play well. … We started off, I thought, fairly well, but we didn't play well enough.”