Hackett Breaks Silence on Broncos' Late-Game Defensive Collapses
For the most part, the Denver Broncos defense has been given a pass this season for its back-to-the-wall type of performances. On the other side of the ball, the struggling offense has drawn the most criticism for the team’s current 3-7 record.
That's not to say that Broncos' defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero's defense is perfect because, most worryingly, they have given up a score in the final five minutes of their last seven consecutive games. Framed in the context of just how Denver's scoring offense has been, in the final analysis, it all equates to losing football.
On Wednesday, head coach Nathaniel Hackett broached the issue of his defense's late-game collapses but strangely skirted around the real root cause.
“It’s been brought up to their attention," Hackett said. "Everything’s good, then we’ve had a couple of mishaps here and there in those two-minute situations. We’ve tried to work it a little bit more in practice, anyway that we possibly can, just to get the communication. We want all the communication clarity to be great.”
For as good as the Evero defense has been this year, Denver's inability to step up and stop teams from scoring late points is an awful reminder of the Vic Fangio era. The truth is, due to consistent failures on offense, the Denver defense is often wearing down when it really counts.
Hackett knows that playing complementary football is the ultimate solution to his mounting problems. But getting to that promised land has been well beyond the Broncos' collective capabilities in 2022.
On Wednesday, Hackett once again opted to accentuate the positives and largely dismissed how the debilitating factor of fatigue might hamper the entire team going down the stretch.
“No, it’s football. You have to go out there and have to play, no matter what the situation is,” Hackett said. “That’s what we’re all here to do. We’re here to coach it, and we’re here to play the game. Whatever the situation or however it does happen, the offense has to stay on the field and score points, and the defense has to stop them, no matter what it is.”
Whichever way he slices it, Hackett is left facing a brutal reality that a playoff berth is increasingly unlikely for his underwhelming outfit. Barring some sort of miracle, the rookie head coach's impending failure to break the Broncos' long-running playoff drought might well mean he's one-and-done in the Mile High City.
Hackett was fairly cerebral when talking about how hurtful missing the playoffs would be for Broncos Country. However, he stopped short of taking complete ownership of the organization's failures — and for blatantly obvious reasons.
“The past is the past. I wasn’t here for that," Hackett said. "I’ve been in a couple of different places where you enter in—whether it has been a playoff drought—and you have to focus on the now. You have to focus on the ways that you can improve the culture that you’re building, the relationships with the guys, the understanding that you come in this building to work every day and show them how hard it is to win.”
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