In perhaps the upset of Week 16, the New England Patriots beat the Denver Broncos 26-23. It all but ends any playoff aspirations the Denver faithful thought this year's Broncos had after winning five straight starting at the last week of October all the way through the end of November.
The Broncos (7-8) seemingly had everything in front of them facing a struggling Patriots (4-11) team at home. This year's Patriots team has been the worst in the Bill Belichick era, just one loss away from a career high for the veteran coach. Yet, the Broncos failed miserably in a must-win game, especially as an offense, who didn't score a majority of their points until the fourth quarter.
The problem was, by the start of the fourth quarter, the Patriots were up 23-7. However, New England's three points scored that left only two seconds on the clock off a Chad Ryland 56-yard field goal, a career-long, was the game-winner that ultimately crushed the Broncos in the end.
It was crushing because the Broncos made a valiant comeback, scoring two touchdowns, plus the two-point conversions each, on their first two drives of the fourth quarter. One on a three-yard pass to Lucas Krull and the other on a Brandon Johnson 21-yard pass from Russell Wilson.
But who deserves the blame for this Broncos blunder? Let's take a look.
Javonte Williams' four straight runs on Broncos' first possession for no score
The Patriots all but handed the Broncos a score at the top of the game when New England quarterback Bailey Zappe inside his own 10-yard-line. With the ball at the New England 6, Javonte Williams ran four straight times that resulted in only a gain worth of four yards. In hindsight, head coach Sean Payton should have probably called for a field goal, but this never looked to be a promising drive to begin with.
On third-and-goal, Wilson threw an interception, but it was later overturned by the officials. So maybe it was that Payton didn't trust Wilson inside the five-yard-line where it was more congested. Either way, the fact that the Broncos didn't score a single point here was a huge detriment to the rest of the game.
Sean Payton's play-calling
Of course, you can't blame everything on Williams here, as the offense as a whole was atrocious, and a lot of that had to do with Payton's play-calling on Sunday. Not only did Payton decide to run Williams four straight times on a goal-to-go and handed the score to the Patriots on their first possession, on the Broncos' first three possessions, they ran it a total of eight out of 10 plays. The result was only one touchdown, which was their only score of the half as well, and one that started at the New England 25 thanks to a Bryce Baringer six-yard punt.
Marvin Mims fumbled late in the third quarter
The Patriots increased their lead in the third when Zappe found Mike Gesicki on an 11-yard touchdown pass to make it 16-7. With the game still relatively within reach, down nine, Marvin Mims muffed the kick inside the Denver 4, resulting in the Patriots' Cody Davis scooping the ball up at the 1 and scoring.
This was really the story of the game, as the Patriots, as situationally bad as they've been all season, capitalized on the mistakes the Broncos made, where Denver didn't do the same with New England. The Mims fumble recovery for a touchdown had the Patriots scoring two touchdowns in eight seconds.
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