FMIA Week 3: Broncos’ Coaching Experiment Pays Off, Dolphins Win ‘Beast’ Game,

So here came the first big test in the grand Nathaniel Hackett experiment, with 12:48 to play in the fourth quarter Sunday night against San Francisco. The Niners led 10-5. Denver QB Russell Wilson, needing seven yards for a first down, scrambled for what appeared to be about six-and-a-half to about a foot shy of the first down at the Bronco 35-. But Wilson had reached his arm out, with the ball, very near the 35 as he went down.

Hackett has had three years of clock/judgment/timeout problems in his three weeks as an NFL head coach, which is why he made the unorthodox move last Tuesday of hiring a retired special-teams coach, Jerry Rosburg, as senior assistant/in-game decision-making. Now Rosburg had either one or two decisions to advise his boss on.

Decision one: Should Denver challenge the call on the field that Wilson was short of the first down?

“It’s a value challenge,” came Rosburg’s voice via headset to Hackett. So Denver challenged and failed; the Wilson reach for the first down would have mattered had he broke the plane of the goal line, but not in the field of play. Quirky rule, but in the field of play, the ball is spotted where it is when the knee hits the ground. Wilson was clearly short.

Decision two: Down five, playing poorly on offense, should Denver go for fourth-and-a-foot, or punt? “Punt,” Rosburg advised, and Hackett agreed. The Broncos defense was playing too well to risk failing at fourth-and-short and thus the team punted. When they got the ball back, Wilson drove Denver 80 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. All’s well that ends well, at least on this night.

Denver 11, San Francisco 10. Amazing that through the mayhem of the last 14 days – the ridiculous choice to try a 64-yard field goal in Seattle, the mismanagement of timeouts, the league-high four delay-of-game calls in two weeks, the win that felt like a loss in the post-Houston-game locker room last week – the Broncos are 2-1 and tied for first in the AFC West.

Such an odd debut to an NFL head-coaching career, realizing you don’t have people on your staff who can help you on things like time and game management – the Broncos have a very young staff – and think you’ve got to go outside the building for help. And doing it while in game-week preparation. I asked Hackett if it all felt embarrassing.

“No,” he said firmly over the phone from the stadium. “For me, I felt empowered that I was able to make a decision. Hey, let’s fix it. I’m the leader of the team. Let’s do it.

“This was the first time, the past two games, that I felt I was hurting my team. Did I have enough info? I don’t know. But I knew the setup wasn’t right. I needed help to make the tough decision.”

What a whirlwind. Hackett didn’t know Rosburg, who was living in Florida while retired. But after a flurry of phone calls and a Tuesday meeting in Denver, Hackett introduced him to the team in the squad meeting Wednesday. He told the players if he asked them to take a critical look at themselves if they erred, it’s right that he do the same as the head coach. He’d erred by not being ready to handle all the in-game decisions, and Rosburg was the fix-it…