Sean Payton reiterated his belief Wednesday that Denver’s game-deciding blocked field goal at Kansas City last weekend was a failure in coaching.
“I felt sick watching it,” Payton said. “And I felt like, ‘hey, that’s on us.’ In other words, (it’s) technique and then also, are we asking the right players to do the right things?
“(Offensive line coach) Zach Strief played forever and played in that position. He’s someone that, after watching it, every one of us felt, as coaches, that we let the players down and that we needed to see that, correct that. That’s difficult when that happens. That’s how we felt.”
Forsyth’s teammates may have felt sick in the aftermath of the Broncos’ 16-14 loss to the Chiefs, first about the game’s outcome and then about criticism toward the Broncos’ second-year offensive lineman.
Quarterback Bo Nix played one year with Forsyth at Oregon in 2022 and now is teammates with him again, meaning Nix has known him as long or longer than virtually anybody on the Broncos’ roster. Then, Forsyth started four games at center in front of the rookie quarterback earlier this year when Luke Wattenberg was on injured reserve.
Nix, a captain and budding leader, on Wednesday took a long, deep breath before answering a question about Forsyth and his demeanor since Sunday.
“I think it’s very unfortunate and very unfair that, ultimately, a play comes down to one moment and people can say it falls under one person.,” Nix said, launching into a two-plus minute defense of the 2023 seventh-round draft pick. “Nobody prepares like Alex Forsyth. Nobody goes through the moments throughout the week and gets every set and every look that he possibly can to go out there and put his team in the best possible spot (like Forsyth).
“I think it’s unfair that, unfortunately it’s the game we play and all of our mistakes are on national TV and everyone sees them. And there’s a lot of negative talk when somebody messes up. But I think it should be known how valuable he is to our team, how much he’s respected throughout our locker room and it really ticks me off that people can say those things about him and not even see how he works or how he responds or how he plays.”
In the locker room, players came to Forsyth’s defense with similar intensity. Right guard Quinn Meinerz plays two spots inside Forsyth on the field goal unit.
“I think the blame is kind of ridiculous,” Meinerz said. “The last couple of days, I’ve been pretty upset by the overall coverage and how it’s been handled across all different platforms. He is preparing every single week to be able to play left guard, right guard and center. He came in and played his tail off at center for us. He’s been asked to be on punt and he’s been doing that. He’s doing the field goal thing as well. He’s got a ton of jobs he’s working on every single day. I have a ton of respect for the way he works, the way he grinds, the way he asks questions.
“He’s a great player and he’s been a reason for some of the success we’ve had on the offensive line when he’s played with us. There’s a handful of reasons as to how that happened to him and I’ve been giving him as much support as I can because that’s an unfortunate position. Playing that position on field goal is one of the hardest job in the sport and arguably across all sports.”
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Part of what Meinerz is referring to: The third man out from the center is where most of the pressure the Broncos’ have faced on field goal tries comes from. This year alone, all but two of the 22 instances of a player getting knocked down on field goal and extra point tries have been playing that spot either on the left side (Forsyth 15 times) or the right side (Alex Palczewski three times, Calvin Throckmorton twice).
Meinerz also said Forsyth wouldn’t have been in that position had the offense not stalled out on three straight drives to start the second half.
As Nix continued his defense of Forsyth on the podium, he said he thought Forsyth would “respond probably better than anybody in that situation.”
“I respect him greatly and I hate that he’s having to go through all of this, but sometimes it’s part of the game and it is what we signed up for,” Nix finished. “I’m happy to be on his team. I’m proud to call him a teammate and I know he’s going to respond really well.”
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