DETROIT — Arrogant. Prickly. Defensive. Petty. Paranoid. But who knew Sean Payton was a quitter, too?
“They were close. The problem is, they were right at that (borderline),” the Broncos coach said of the challenge flags that were apparently too heavy for the wee man to hurl Saturday night at Ford Field.
“You know, when you start challenging spots, it becomes difficult. The frustrating part of the sequence was the next (fourth-down) run. We’ll leave it at that.”
No. No, we won’t. ***
The frustrating part of the sequence is that after a bogus offsides penalty on guard Quinn Meinerz turned multiple touchdowns into fourth-and-goal at the Lions 5, Teflon Sean, down 21 to a good team, elected to kick a meaningless 23-yard field goal.
With 46 seconds left in the third quarter.
On the road.
Against an offense that your defense had shown few signs of stopping.
The frustrating part of the sequence is that, although Payton had 15 minutes and change left to play with, instead of throwing a red flag, the man threw in the towel. With his 7-6 team in the middle of a playoff chase.
The frustrating part of the sequence is that Payton’s Obi Wan Kenobi got absolutely lapped by Dan Campbell’s Anakin Skywalker.
Literally, in most cases. The 7-7 Broncos are brash but blemished, the sort of team the AFC elite are secretly rooting to see crash the party as a No. 7 seed because of nights just like the one that fried our retinas in the Motor City.
That was the start of a hapless offensive first half for the Broncos. They gained just 75 net yards and 63 of them came on the first play and a scramble-drill completion to Courtland Sutton. The rest: 12 net yards on 24 snaps.
After the fumble, Denver punted on their next four drives and mustered just two total first downs the rest of the first half.
Compounding the problem: Three of their five first-half possessions lasted 1 minute, 33 seconds or less.
