Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett has already lost quite a bit

Though the Denver Broncos were able to even their record at 1-1, the team is off to a rough start from the sidelines. 

Nathaniel Hackett is in his first year as head coach of the Broncos and his inexperience was something that was talked about this offseason when talk of how the Broncos were going to compete within a tough division came up.

That inexperience has already reared its ugly head.

For Hackett, it has been disastrous. He has not only looked lost on the sidelines at times, but it has been comical with several delay of game penalties, wasted time outs and questionable decisions.

That was incredibly evident during one sequence during the game against the Houston Texans on Sunday. Facing a 3rd-and-1 at the Houston 35-yard line in the third quarter, the Broncos handed the ball off, but not to Javonte Williams who was averaging over six yards per carry in the game, but instead to Andrew Beck, who had all of one carry in his entire career to that point.

That play lost a yard and on 4th-and-2, Hackett signaled to go for it. But then he changed his mind and the field goal unit trotted out. But then the play clock expired and the Broncos were assessed a delay of game penalty.

Instead of kicking what was now a 59-yard field goal, he brought out the punter.

There was another instance during the game when the Texans were punting and the Broncos did not have a return man on the field. That forced them to burn another timeout.

It’s painful if you’re a Broncos fan, but likely quite laughable if you’re not.

Hackett looks like an absolute amateur out there and in two games, he has already lost the confidence of Broncos Country. That will not be easy to get back.

The Broncos have suffered through a stretch of six seasons without making the playoffs. You could pin a good deal of those failures on former head coaches Vance Joseph and Vic Fangio. In each case, fans likely could not imagine a head coach being worse than either of those guys.

But to this point, Hackett is unquestionably worse.

He gets his team inside the 5-yard line, has Russell Wilson line up in shotgun and calls an RPO pass play. Those have not been working. Those plays have not come close to working.

Hackett’s play-calling lacks imagination, his time management is incredibly bad and his decision-making ability is questionable, to say the least.

His team has been penalized at an alarming rate and the fact that the team has Wilson has become completely overshadowed by Hackett’s miscues.

Luckily, Hackett has a lot of time to get this turned around but he will also be under the national spotlight in five other games this year. That’s a chance to get embarrassed on a larger scale.

And to this point, it has been quite bad. As stated, Hackett has lost the confidence of the fans and he will have to work diligently to get that back.