Nathaniel Hackett hopes someday, maybe a couple of months down the line, he and his Broncos can look at what happened this September and October as something that was really valuable. Maybe they’ll be able to tell the story about how all the weird scheduling quirks, and concessions made for television, and losses brought together and hardened a team with new people everywhere, from the roster to the coaching staff to the owners’ box.
For now, though, this is the truth—it’s kind of sucked for those guys.
The coaches had to prepare for the Jets on a short week, coming off a Monday night trip to Los Angeles to face the Chargers, then turned around and went to London for the Jaguars, which cost them another day. That was while playing five of their first eight games in national standalone time slots, where every misstep and growing pain was magnified for social media and the mid-morning sports talk shows. Which could have made a 2–5 start feel like a 2–50 to dig out of.
Maybe that’s why, as Hackett prepared to leave England in early evening (U.K. time) Sunday, there was something cathartic about where he sat. The Broncos finally had the breaks go their way down the stretch to edge the Jaguars, 21–17. On the other end of the long flight, Hackett and his staff had a bye coming. And as for the rest of the season? The Broncos are scheduled for Sundays the rest of the way, with only one prime-time game (against the Chiefs) and one other national game (vs. the Panthers on Christmas) left.
Wilson helped rally the Broncos past the Jaguars with a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter.
Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
“The amount of adversity that we’ve faced, I don’t care what anybody says, it’s more than anybody,” Hackett told me. “Through injuries, through schedules, and that doesn’t even count the games. So I think just seeing everybody battle through it, the defense playing at a high level, they’ve all played together for a long time. We’ve got an offense that hasn’t played well, but they haven’t played together a lot. They haven’t played as a group, so you gotta learn those ins and outs.
“And I gotta learn how to call plays for Russ, I gotta learn how to call plays for all the players. And we’ve been in the spotlight, all those things. And listen, we’ve got so much more that we have to do, so much more we have to correct. And there’s so much more room for being better.”
But Sunday did represent progress, despite it starting the way a lot of other games have for the Broncos—with Russell Wilson wobbly and the offense around him struggling to get in gear. The first quarter featured as many interceptions as it did first downs (and Wilson’s interception was poorly thrown and at a covered receiver), and that put Jacksonville up 7–0 going into the second quarter.
Which was when Hackett took something he figured out about Wilson the past few months and decided to do more than just experiment with it.
The offensive staff and Wilson had, to be sure, already discussed the idea of playing tempo more, because the quarterback liked going no-huddle, and because creating rhythm for the younger players stood to benefit them. The question was how much they’d do it. And once it jump-started a mid-second-quarter possession—creating an 11-play, 75-yard drive capped by a six-yard shovel pass to Jerry Jeudy to cut a 10–0 deficit to three—the answer was clear.
“We went up-tempo, no-huddle the whole time,” he said. “And we were just trying to get the rhythm and do the things that he felt comfortable with and that he felt good with and throw some runs in there that started popping. So I felt like just the whole staff made great adjustments.”
It wasn’t perfect, but it gave the Denver offense enough traction to put together a go-ahead drive in the third quarter, and set up the game-winning drive thereafter, and the two plays that defined it.
The first, with the Broncos just having fallen behind 21–17, was a 47-yard shot down the right sideline to KJ Hamler that moved the ball from the Broncos’ 20 to the Jaguars’ 33.
“One of their big adjustments was they started playing a lot more press-man in the second half; they’d played man, but they kind of amped it up some,” Hackett said. “So when we did that, we actually were planning on a different play. We switched, ended up getting the ball on the other hash, so it switched on the next play and the idea was to get one-on-one with KJ. So all of us knew that we were going to him, if we got that.”
The second play was far less planned—a 10-yard scramble from the Jacksonville 28 by Wilson—to convert a third-and-5 three plays after the Hamler bomb.
“He’s been very beat up,” said Hackett of Wilson. “And he hasn’t bitched, he hasn’t complained, he kept grinding and he was a war daddy today. Obviously, we know he’s got the hamstring, he was just like ‘F— it. I’m doing it.’ And I give him so much credit, his perseverance to be able to say ‘F— it’ and still do what he has to do to take off and get us a first down in that spot was huge.”
Hackett followed that with an end-around to Hamler for another nine yards, and two Latavius Murray runs later, one of two and the other of nine yards, and the Broncos were up for good.
And so a couple hours later, Hackett could finally exhale, and let go of some of the frustration of the past few weeks. Finally, a close one went the Broncos’ way. Finally, the offense was keeping up with the defense. Finally, the Broncos will get a break, and then a stretch of games that look more like they’re on a conventional NFL schedule.
“Look at Green Bay—we were 13–3 every year and we lost in the playoffs,” Hackett said, pointing back to his old job as offensive coordinator. “You have to learn what it feels like to go through adversity. You have to feel that. You have to feel that whether it be hopelessness or guys wanting to make a play, you got to feel that and fight through that. Because that’s part of your game. And to be the best, you gotta beat the best. You want to be the best, you have to go through the hardest times. And that’s what makes teams great in my opinion.
“So, yeah, we’ve gone through a lot of adversity, a lot of people questioned every single thing, every single thing any of us have done since we’ve been here. More scrutiny than probably anybody. But fine, bring it on. And as long as we’re strong and together, then you get to learn from it and grow from it.”
At least for now, Hackett feels confident his group’s done just that.
Smith continues to flourish this season, going 23-of-34 for 212 yards and two scores on Sunday.
Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports
After a decade of having Wilson, Seattle’s adjustment away from him has gone considerably smoother than Denver’s adjustment with him. And that is, in large part, because the Seahawks didn’t overhaul the position. They kept Geno Smith. They brought in Drew Lock, as part of the Wilson trade, to compete with him. And they kept the team mostly together, while adding an ultra-talented rookie class to the roster.
That continuity counted on Sunday at the most important time.
With a little more than two minutes left in the third quarter, sure-handed veteran Tyler Lockett, who’d already fumbled away a scoring chance earlier, let a potential go-ahead touchdown pass down the right sideline go right through his hands. At that point, Smith went to Lockett on the sideline and leaned on the relationship the two had built over the quarterback’s four years in Seattle.
“I went right up to him and I was like, Hey, you never drop the ball, so guess what’s going to happen? A big play is going to happen,” Smith said. “And it did. And that’s usually how it works, man. You just look at the law of averages. Like I said, he never drops passes, and if something like that happens, then you know he’s going to come back and make a big play.”
On this day, it was the biggest play. On the next series after Lockett’s drop, with the teams having traded field goals to make it 13–13, Smith again found Lockett, who had gotten behind two defensive backs, and Lockett came away with it for a 33-yard touchdown to put Seattle up for good with 9:18 to go.
A Giants muffed punt, and a Kenneth Walker III touchdown later, and Seattle had come away with a 27–13 win to get to 5–3 and maintain sole possession of first place in the NFC West.
“I mean, he’s Tyler Lockett,” Smith said. “And that’s probably the first time I’ve seen him drop a pass like that, and he’ll probably drop another one in another 10 years. So he’s really good and we don’t blink when it comes to him. We know he’s going to make his plays, we know he’s going to give it his all, so I continue to have faith in him the same way he has faith in me.
“And I think that’s just, when you talk about our team, that’s what we stand for and that’s what we’re about. And it was just great for him to make that play obviously after having two plays that I know he would like to have back. But in clutch situations, I know he’s going to make that play.”
The rest of the Seahawks’ roster is starting to feel that way about Smith, too. And what was maybe most impressive about this one—Smith finished 23-of-34 for 212 yards, two scores and a 104.1 rating—was the overall lack of a run game Seattle could generate against Wink Martindale’s defensive front. Before Walker’s 16-yard TD, the Seahawks were at just 52 yards on 19 carries for the afternoon.
So Smith had to fight through that. And, ultimately, Walker did too, to come out the other side with that 16-yard scoring run.
“Obviously, [the Giants] are playing a lot of Cover 0, so that means there’s eight, nine people in the box,” Smith said. “It’s going to be hard to run against that and I think what Ken did a tremendous job of is not letting the earlier plays, where he was getting one and two yards or three yards, affect his reads or affect his confidence. He cut that thing back against the grain, I got a little bit of a block and he made two guys miss and got in the end zone. And that’s what the best running backs do.
“When the game’s on the line, four-minute situations or the defense knows you’re running the ball, they still find ways to get those yards and get those touchdowns.”
All this has done is validate what the Seahawks thought they had in the summer—something they told everyone who would listen was there, even as most expected the first year post-Wilson to be a total rebuild, -throwaway year. They believed it, because they saw it, and now everyone else can, too.
“Just watching ourselves on tape, we’re one of the fastest teams in the league,” Smith said. “We’ve got a lot of explosive players. We have a great offensive line. It starts with our center [Austin Blythe] who’s played a lot of football, and he knows what he’s doing. And then we have coaches who believe in us,” Smith said. “We have coaches who put a lot on our plate; they’re not afraid to put us in situations that are going to be tough because they believe that we’re going to make the plays. And so we just gotta continue to stay focused and stay together.”
So far, so much better than most of us expected.
McLaurin’s contested catch over Gilmore late in the fourth quarter set up the game-winning TD.
Trevor Ruszkowski/USA TODAY Sports
Terry McLaurin’s had a lot of big moments as a pro—but Sunday really stood out. And one thing he’ll always keep with him is the moment when he saw four of his best friends in the stands. The Indianapolis native had gotten them tickets further up in the Lucas Oil Stadium stands, and they’d moved down behind the Washington bench, close enough so McLaurin could hear them from the field.
With about three minutes left, and Washington down 16–10, they got their message across.
“They came down to where the front row over our sideline is, and they were like, Hey, this is your moment, this is your time to win the game, go win the game, go make the play for your team,” McLaurin said from the Commanders’ locker room afterward. “And it’s easy for them to say. You just don’t know how it’s going to come up, but I just try to stay focused and locked in and I’m just so thankful to be so calm in those moments and to be trusted.”
McLaurin was trusted, alright. And for the second consecutive week, Taylor Heinicke’s trust in him paid off, this time to the delight of the 70-or-so folks the star receiver had in the stands for his homecoming.
Even better, by leaning on Heinicke in his return to the lineup, and McLaurin, as usual, the Commanders find themselves right back in the hunt at 4–4.
And while there was more to it than just one play, the one play everyone will remember from this one does tie everything together pretty perfectly—from the trust between quarterback and receiver, to the clutch play of both, to bringing another chapter to McLaurin’s history in that stadium where he has won two state championships, three Big 10 titles and still has never lost a game.
To set up the play in question, the Commanders had to force a three-and-out, and drive 55 yards in less than two minutes from their own 11. That set up Heinicke to take a first-and-10 snap from the Colts’ 34 with 41 seconds left.
“We had one of our base concepts on,” McLaurin said. “And I have a feel for when Taylor’s going to start moving around and extending the play, and I knew [Stephon] Gilmore was on me and when I saw Taylor starting to run, when I saw him starting to scramble, I just wanted to give him an open target. And I kind of did a pirouette on Gilmore, who I have the utmost respect for; he still plays at an extremely high level, an ex-Defensive Player of the Year.
“And when I got that separation, I was just hoping he saw me and he did. And that ball was in the air and I had confidence that it was going to be mine. And it was, and I’m just thankful to be able to make that play for the team.”
Even better—he went over the top of the long, rangy Gilmore to get the ball, which is something in an honest moment he conceded he might not have pulled off in years past.
“I kind of struggled with those contested catches at one time in my career, and I just worked at it. We grinded and for it to show up in big moments, I’m just thankful to be able to put that kind of work in to see it show up.” he said. “So when I saw that ball in the air, I truly had confidence that I was going to come down with it against a really good player.”
And he did, which put the ball at the 1-yard line with 26 seconds left.
Heinicke barreled in from a yard out on the next play and, suddenly, inexplicably, Washington is back in the NFC playoff race.
Two and a half weeks ago, Washington was 1–4 and its ownership situation (we’ll get to that in the Ten Takeaways) was front and center. Somehow, Ron Rivera’s crew, amid the mess, has pulled itself from the rubble.
It’s fair to say that having guys such as McLaurin hasn’t hurt.
“I think we have a resilient bunch of guys in our locker room,” he said. “We got a great group of leaders and vets, and our young guys have really helped us this year. We know we can’t control a lot of the other things that are going on, but we can control our attitude when we come into that building each and every day. That’s what Coach Rivera talks about—our attitude, our preparation, our effort. And I just think we got a team that doesn’t quit on each other.
“Our defense picked us up when we needed to, offense and special teams have been doing a great job flipping the field. You’re going to have a lot of chances to win a lot of games in this league if you play complimentary football and not shoot yourselves in the foot. I know we still have a long way to go, but just to win three in a row, that’s a lot of momentum for us, so we just have to learn from this.”
There’ll be plenty of time for that, of course, with a crucial NFC showdown with the 6–1 Vikings at home next week. Sunday, McLaurin was going to give himself a few minutes to enjoy what he’d done. And rightfully so.
“To be able to come back in front of my friends and family and to be a big part of this team, God is so good,” he said. “And I just feel extremely blessed to be in this situation and to see how my journey has gone throughout my life. And my football journey, just to be here, to come and to get the win is the most important part. It’s cool to never have lost in this stadium—high school, college and even in the NFL—so just to be in a situation, to be trusted by my teammates to make those kinds of plays, I couldn’t ask for any more.”
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