Brandon McManus Defends Hackett's Controversial FG Call: 'Need to Make the Kick'
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That sound you hear is Brandon McManus falling on the sword for his suddenly-embattled head coach.
Taking to Twitter, McManus sounded off on the Denver Broncos' 17-16 defeat at Seattle on Monday Night Football, defending Nathaniel Hackett's fateful decision to try a 64-yard field goal in the closing moments of the season opener.
"46 yard line left hash was my line to get to. They got it there. Need to make the kick," McManus tweeted.
If McManus had made that kick — which came heart-wrenchingly close — it would've been only his second successful career attempt from 60-plus yards, and the second-longest FG in NFL history. The odds were a scant 14.2%, per Next Gen Stats.
Alternatively, according to ESPN Stats & Info, the Broncos had a 49% chance of converting the 4th-and-5 they were facing from the Seahawks' 46-yard line. This, after Hackett intentionally allowed 39 seconds to tick off the clock and put the game on McManus' right leg.
"We were right on the line and he had plenty of distance. He just missed it," Hackett said amid his postgame press conference. "Again, that's — hey, Brandon gave it his best shot. That's a long field goal to hit. I think he's capable of that, but obviously I wish we would've got a lot closer. It put us in that weird spot there because we were in the field goal range but we were on that fourth down situation."
To the logical mind, Denver's loss was not McManus' fault; he's neither the hero nor the goat. Rather, it's reflective of a rookie HC who consciously took the ball out of his $245 million franchise quarterback's hands. The quarterback who boasts a 68.8% career conversion rate on 4th-and-5 or less. The quarterback with 17 fourth-quarter comebacks since 2015.
That Russell Wilson guy, who publicly said the right things but privately must be wondering ... what if?
"I believe in Coach Hackett. I believe in what we're doing," Wilson claimed to reporters. "Believe in everything, and any time you can try to find a way to make a play on fourth and five, that's great too. Also, I don't think it was the wrong decision. I think he can make it. Obviously hindsight he didn't make it, but we were in that situation again I wouldn't doubt whatever he decided."
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