The Broncos’ playoff overtime win against the Bills could have gone very differently, if a play Broncos coach Sean Payton called had actually been run.
Payton said after the game that he called a fake punt on fourth-and-11 in overtime, only to have the players change it at the line of scrimmage and run a normal punt.
A lengthy ESPN article about Payton details how he spent hours studying fake punts and found one he liked that the Raiders once ran. The Broncos adopted that Raiders play in their own special teams playbook and referred to as Rutgers Special because the ball would have gone to the upback, Michael Burton, who played at Rutgers.
The Broncos never actually ran Rutgers Special in the divisional playoffs against the Bills, but Payton confirmed after the game that he told his punt team to run it at the end of the first possession of overtime, on fourth-and-11 at their own 38-yard line. If the Broncos had failed, the Bills would have taken over only needing a field goal to win the game, and already being in range for a long field goal. It was a massive risk Payton was taking by making that call, but Payton has called risky special teams plays in big situations before, most famously the surprise onside kick he called as head coach of the Saints in their Super Bowl XLIV win over the Colts.
It’s not clear what the Broncos’ players saw at the line of scrimmage that made them call the fake off and punt the ball instead. But Payton described a fake as “Worth the risk” when the alternative was punting the ball to Josh Allen, and Payton added, “We had the right look.”
As it turned out, Allen threw an interception on the possession after the punt, and the Broncos drove into field goal range and kicked the game-winner to advance to the AFC Championship Game. We’ll never know what might have happened if the players had run the fake punt that Payton wanted.
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