There’s a strong case to be made that Denver Broncos coach Gary Kubiak turned a tie into a defeat by opting to attempt a 62-yard field goal late in overtime against Kansas City, and on Monday, he was left to defend that call.
With just over a minute remaining in overtime, Kubiak decided against punting, which would have ideally forced the Chiefs to try to get into field goal range from inside their own territory in only a minute. Instead, he had Brandon McManus try a 62-yard field goal for the win. The kick was no good, and it set Kansas City up at the Denver 48, allowing them to move into field goal range and win the game as time expired in overtime.
Kubiak’s reasoning was simple: the Broncos were trying to win.
“The fact that we had no timeouts probably made it — made me want to go in that direction,” Kubiak said after the game, via Edward Lewis of NFL Media. “If you did have your timeouts, maybe, maybe you think about punting it down there and see if you can get the ball back. I don’t know. But we’re going to try to win, and I’ve seen B-Mac do that many times in practice.
“It’s on me. I just gave him a chance, thought we could do it, but we didn’t get it done. Give them credit.”
At that point, winning is probably too much to hope for. The aim should have been to preserve the tie, which isn’t optimal, but still would have ensured that Denver and Kansas City remained even record-wise. Kubiak wasn’t the only one to make a mistake in the game, but this one was particularly egregious, and it could have serious repercussions going forward as far as the fate of Denver’s season goes.
