Quinn Meinerz gets brutally honest about Sean Payton's polarizing 4th down call

Sean Payton put faith in his offense with the Denver Broncos up 7-0 against the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship, and his guys on offense let him down on a crucial 4th-and-1 early in the game.

At least, that's what starting right guard Quinn Meinerz said about the decision after the game.

Meinerz supported the decision by Payton to go for it on 4th-and-1, but said that the offense simply didn't execute the play well enough, and that was the end of it.

Quinn Meinerz stands by Sean Payton's decision to keep Broncos offense on the field for crucial 4th-down play

The play ended up being a huge blow to the Broncos' chances of winning. Payton decided to pass on what would have been a rather easy field goal for Wil Lutz at the time, but left those points in favor of trying to get seven instead.

Instead of getting seven, the Broncos got nothing. Payton's 4th-down play call was blown up by the Patriots, and Jarrett Stidham was barely able to get the ball out to a receiver, where it was nearly picked off by the Patriots.

That decision loomed large because, obviously, the conditions of the game got worse as the game went along. The Broncos and Patriots were in a close game all afternoon, but when the elements started to play a factor, they couldn't see the lines on the field and we saw players losing their footing, and the Patriots just clinging to a three-point lead for the majority of the second half.

Seeing the weather turn on a dime like that, fans were obviously pointing back to the decision by Payton in the 2nd quarter where he passed on the chance to take a 10-0 lead. And in hindsight, he probably should have taken that 10-0 lead and seen what happened from that point.

The only reason the Patriots got a touchdown in this game was because of a pass that was initially ruled intentional grounding on the field, but was changed after discussion to a backward pass by Jarrett Stidham. Nobody watching the game has ever seen a tipped pass ruled a backward pass, but there's a first time for everything.

Of course, in a game where points are precious and yards are hard to come by, those three points would have made a significant impact on the game. But so would the other six points the Broncos didn't get on field goal attempts, one that was missed by Wil Lutz and one that was seemingly tipped by a Patriots player just enough to redirect the trajectory of the ball.

Payton said after the game it was the way the defense was playing that prompted him to go for the 4th down, but ultimately, it was the weather and elements that played a bigger factor than he could have possibly imagined.