Nathaniel Hackett's late-game coaching in Russell Wilson's return to Seattle was historically bad

BOSTON -- A Super Bowl-winning, franchise quarterback only gets one shot to make his return to his old stomping grounds. For Russell Wilson, that moment came Monday night in Seattle. And he had the chance to be the hero, silencing all of the boos that had rained down on him from the moment he stepped back onto that turf.

But Nathaniel Hackett robbed Wilson of that moment.

The first-year head coach bungled the end-of-game situation so badly that nobody who was watching will ever forget just how atrocious it was. And anybody who wasn't watching ought to find a way to watch the final minutes of the Seahawks' 17-16 win over Denver, because it's not often that this particular brand of brutal coaching is on display in such fashion.

While there's often some reasonable debate about coaching decisions, there's just not any single way anybody could defend Hackett's decision-making late in this loss.

Denver had issues all night, fumbling twice at the goal line, committing 12 accepted penalties for 106 yards, getting punked by Geno Smith (GENO SMITH!) in the first half, and failing to find the end zone on all four of their red zone trips and all three of their goal-to-go situations. That's hard to do.

But it didn't matter, because at the end of the game, the ball was in Russell Wilson's hands with a chance to win the game.

After a -- let's call it -- unique decision by Wilson to hit running back Javonte Williams on a swing pass behind the line of scrimmage on a third-and-14, the Broncos faced a fourth-and-5 thanks to the running back's individual effort near the boundary. When Williams was brought down at the Seattle 46-yard line, 62 seconds remained in the game.

It was time to call timeout. 

The Broncos needed to call timeout.

WHY WEREN'T THE BRONCOS CALLING TIMEOUT?!

Instead, the Broncos were milling about. Ten seconds ticked off. Then 20. Then they were ... huddling. Then -- in the NFL's noisiest or second-noisiest stadium, and with 72,000 rabid fans at full throat, mind you -- the Broncos broke the huddle and headed to the line of scrimmage, with 10 seconds left on the play clock.

There is setting your team up to fail, and then there is what Hackett did in that situation.

Poor Peyton Manning was crawling out of his skin watching this excruciating moment play out on live TV. Even Eli knew it was bad.

Then finally, with no time left on the play clock, Russell Wilson ... turned and called timeout. 

Instead of using one of their three timeouts with 1:01 left, the Broncos simply let 40 seconds evaporate into thin air.

Now, had Wilson and Co. converted that fourth-and-5, called a timeout, gained a few more yards and set up a reasonable field goal attempt for Brandon McManus to win the game, that horrific clock mismanagement would have been largely forgotten.

But then, Hackett took a bad situation and made it much, much worse, sending out McManus and the field goal unit for a casual 64-yard field goal attempt. 

This was pure lunacy.

Now, McManus does have some leg. His career long is 61 yards, and he hit that kick last year. That one was indoors, against the Chargers. But that 61-yarder (indoors) stands out as an anomaly in his career. The Athletic's Jeff Howe noted that McManus is just 2-for-10 on field goals of 58 yards or more in his career and that he hasn't hit from beyond 55 yards in an outdoor stadium since 2016. That's a long time ago.

And his career high being a 61-yarder was not for lack of trying; McManus had been 0-for-5 on kicks longer than 61 yards in his career.

None of this seemed to have entered Hackett's thought process at all. After Seattle called a timeout to adjust to Denver's insane decision to send out the field goal unit, McManus used the whistle as an opportunity for a practice kick. He missed that dead ball kick wide left. 

McManus lined up again after the timeout and let fly a seriously impressive kick. But it faded left and was no good. There's a reason teams don't kick 64-yard field goals unless they absolutely have to.

And the Broncos lost the game.

Making matters somewhat worse is the fact that Hackett called timeouts after the Seahawks' kneeldowns on first and second down after the missed field goals. Was that bad coaching, per se? No. Was it professional? Was it useful? No and no.

Was it embarrassing? You betcha.

So, Nathaniel Hackett. Uhh ... why'd ya do that?

"Yeah, you know, I think that we weren't moving the ball that efficiently at that time," Hackett said in a postgame interview. "We were just getting little chunks and I wanted to be sure that we guarantee ourselves a chance to win the game."

I wanted to be sure that we guarantee ourselves a chance to win the game.

Did you?  

Hackett also said he was expecting to go for it on fourth down, after the third-and-14, but was so pleasantly surprised by Williams getting the ball to the Seattle 46-yard line (!!!!) that he decided it was mission accomplished. Send out McManus. 

Had the Broncos been out of time, facing that same fourth-and-5 but with 2 seconds on the clock, then nobody would fault Hackett for the desperation kick. But making that call, after wasting 40 seconds, with Russell Wilson under center, with 20 seconds and two timeouts still remaining, in that moment? It's just about unforgivable.

Wilson confirmed that the target mark for McManus was the 46-yard line on the left hash ... but neither Wilson nor Hackett seemed to understand that they actually had a minute of game time to try to make it a more reasonable attempt.

Nevertheless, Wilson -- who's had some ... late-game issues in his past -- put on a happy face (and a shiny suit) after the loss.

"I didn't think it was the wrong decision," Wilson declared. "I think he can make it. Obviously with hindsight, he didn't make it. But if we were in that situation again, I wouldn't doubt whatever he decided."

Suffice it to say, Wilson finds himself in an awfully small group of Hackett believers after Monday night.

Not that we actually need any data to know how horrific that late-game coaching was, there are some statistical models that show how poor of a decision Hackett made. Next Gen Stats said that the chances of McManus hitting that 64-yard field goal were about 14 percent. Meanwhile, the probability of Wilson and the Broncos offense converting a fourth-and-5 was 42.1 percent.

And had they converted that fourth-and-5 -- even after burning 40 seconds of the clock for no reason -- then they would have upped their chances of winning the game from 14 percent to 66.2 percent.

And those are the odds after wasting 40 seconds. Convert that fourth-and-5 with a minute left, and it's a borderline easy victory for Denver, barring a disastrous turnover.

Nevertheless, Hackett -- who looked like a deer in the headlights whenever the ESPN broadcast showed him during the game -- compounded one brutal error with another dubious decision. And he and the Broncos have to soak in that shame for the rest of the week ... but likely a lot longer. A stain like that doesn't fade away quickly. (In retrospect, Hackett must have been in Matt LaFleur's ear begging him to kick that useless, infamous field goal at home in the playoffs against the Bucs in the 2020 playoffs. Who else could have signed off on such a thing?)

Ever since Peyton Manning retired following Denver's 2015 Super Bowl win, the Broncos have been desperately seeking a franchise quarterback. They've tried Trevor Siemian, Case Keenum, Drew Lock, Teddy Bridgewater, Paxton Lynch, Brock Osweiler, Brandon Allen, Jeff Driskel and Brett Rypien. It went, as you might expect, quite poorly. Despite a top-10 defense in four of those seven seasons, the Broncos managed just a 39-58 record. Their average offensive ranking was 22nd.

So the Broncos traded two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick, Noah Fant, Shelby Harris and Drew Lock to Seattle in order to get themselves a franchise QB. Then they gave that franchise QB a $245 million contract, so that he could win games exactly like the one that was playing out in Seattle on Monday night.

But Nathaniel Hackett never got the memo. He sent out his kicker for a mostly impossible field goal attempt. He's got an embarrassing L next to his name to start his head coaching career. 

You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.