'We Messed That One Up': Hackett Laments Russell Wilson Pick-Six in OTA Practice
And on the fourth day of Organized Team Activities, disaster struck the Denver Broncos offense. It took but a single play — the opening play.
Quarterback Russell Wilson floated a ball into the waiting arms of cornerback Patrick Surtain II, who returned the interception for a would-be touchdown. The turnover was met with utter jubilation from Surtain and his defensive mates.
His offensive counterparts ... not so much.
“Right now, I’m trying not to think about it," head coach Nathaniel Hackett said after Tuesday's practice. "We’re not game planning against each other. It’s a great defense out there and wherever people match up, that’s what happens. We’ve gotten after him a couple of times and he made an incredible play last week that was just awesome to see. A great route by [WR] Courtland [Sutton], and he was able to recover. It’s just fun to see the guys get out there and challenge each other every day.”
The mistake is more of a May mulligan, but Hackett and his prideful unit cannot stand to lose any battles in their (friendly) war with Ejiro Evero's defense. This particular battle was a massacre, to the extent that Hackett — as player-friendly as they come — turned critical.
“We have to fix some things up on offense on that one," he lamented. "We messed that one up. We have to keep running on that. But I thought that was a great reactionary play for him and that was the first pick of the OTAs in the offseason. We’re going to be hearing about that, but that was a [heck] of a job across the board. The defense is coming along really well. Obviously, they have played together, and they’ve done a nice job. It makes us better, it makes me better, and makes the whole offense better. It’s great to see that competitive nature out there.”
The beauty of offseason practice work? Now's the time to commit such errors and modify what isn't working.
The beauty of Wilson? This was an extremely rare occurrence; he's thrown only six pick-sixes in his 10-year career. And he rectified the one that doesn't count.
"I think that the first play didn’t go very well today, and he just bounced right back, went right back into it, and wasn’t fazed at all," Hackett said. "As a quarterback, kind of like a corner, you have to live in every play and once that play is over, move onto the next. It’s that simple, and that’s something I’ve been able to see him do and that’s why we practice. We practice to be able to find our limitations.”
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