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Publicly, Broncos quarterback Russell Wilson supports coach Nathaniel Hackett’s decision to attempt a 64-yard field goal rather than give Wilson a chance to convert fourth and fifth to take the kick a little (or a lot ) easier to make . Privately, Wilson may feel differently.
But Wilson’s private thoughts will never come out in such a situation. That’s true of most quarterbacks, especially when they’re playing the first game of their freshman year with a handpicked new team.
Realizing he might be feeling very different internally, here are the relevant things he communicated externally after the 17-16 loss to the Seahawks.
“Well, we might have the best field-goal kicker in the game,” Wilson told reporters of the decision to take the ball out of his hands and put it on kicker Brandon McManus’ foot.
“We said, ‘Where can you make it tonight?’ and he said 46, left hashish. I think we were on the 46. That was before the ride. We have it there; unfortunately didn’t go in. I think he definitely has the leg to do it. I just went a little to the left I think, and just – I believe in Coach Hackett. I believe in what we do. Believe in anything and you can always try to find a way to play fourth and fifth place, that’s great too. I don’t think it was the wrong decision either. I think he can do it. Obviously in hindsight he didn’t make it but we were in that situation again so I wouldn’t doubt his decision.”
But how confident was McManus that he could make it? McManus confirmed to reporters that he told the team he could turn the “46, left hash, and they put me right there” into a field goal.
McManus also told reporters that he priced his chances of getting a kick from “46, left hash” at 65 or 70 percent. However, according to Stathead.com, he had a 12.5 percent career success rate on field goal attempts of 60 yards or longer, scoring one in eight prior to last night.
During the warm-up, a lot of material is placed at the distance and accuracy of a kicker. Obviously, however, this is a different situation. During the game there is a snap, a hold, a rush. The kicker has limited time to get used to the exact placement of the ball. And regardless of what McManus did last night’s warm-up, he was previously 12.5 percent at 60 yards or longer.
Which is impressive. But why would he think he had a 65-70 percent chance of making a kick that would have been the second-longest kick in league history? And if Hackett had put the odds of getting that kick at 12.5 percent, would he (or whoever is whispering the sweet nothingness of analytics in his ear) have decided to let Russ cook?