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The Denver Broncos clearly had a plan to run early and often going into last Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
That game plan was clear because Amazon’s Prime Video broadcast zoomed in on coach Sean Payton’s play sheet that had “RUN IT!!!” written on the top.
Despite that apparent message written to himself, the Broncos got away from the ground game in the second half of Thursday’s game and ultimately lost 34-27. Payton was asked about the message written on his play sheet and turning to the passing game during his Sunday conference call with reporters.
“Fair enough. I think — No. 1 — I don’t like the fact that the network TV cameras feel like they can zoom in to our call sheets, but it is what it is,” Payton said. “It’s just a reminder sometimes. They’ll be little notes we’ll put at the top of — I’ll put at the top of a section. I felt we ran it real well early in the game [in the] first half.
“The second half there were two series I kind of kicked myself where even when we did run it, it was the type of run we ran that wasn’t as effective. We had ample opportunities in that second half. I thought our third-down numbers obviously weren’t where we wanted them to be. We couldn’t get off the field defensively and therefore we weren’t able to keep the lead we had going into halftime or coming out to start the second half.”
“RUN IT!!!”
– Sean Payton pic.twitter.com/IloIJxfQ5V
— NFL on CBS
(@NFLonCBS) December 20, 2024
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Sunday certainly wasn’t the first time a camera crew captured a clear image of Payton’s play sheet. Last season, another Prime Video broadcast showed a crystal clear image of Payton’s play list during a Thursday Night Football showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Payton didn’t think much of last season’s incident.
“I saw it,” Payton said in October last year. “I don’t worry about it. When everyone sent that to me, it was like — this game is so spontaneous and fast. The language teams can look at — everything is on tape. …
“It’s hard to take that information, for instance, and then bring it in the division and look at it and say, ‘Here are the two-minute [calls].’ There are a ton of things we change. Each night we have a new — not audible, but a term we use that we might [change]. Trying to give a defensive player [a heads up], that guy is going to look at you like you’re nuts. He going to say, ‘I have to play.’ I don’t think much of it, but I saw it.”
Payton has since changed his tune. Up next for Denver is a road game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday. We’ll see if NFL Network’s broadcast shows any closeups of the coach’s play sheet.