Broncos' Sean Payton admits 'boneheaded mistake' that led to Chiefs field goal in embarrassing loss

Payton admitted he didn't realize what down it was

The 1-5 Broncos have made plenty of mistakes this season, and Sean Payton owned up to one in the first half of Denver's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night. Payton had the Broncos punt with 22 seconds left to play in the first half, but had called a timeout prior to the punt.

The problem? It should have been the Chiefs calling timeout in order to stop the clock. Payton said he thought it was third down, so he called a timeout in order to get another offensive play called.

Instead, the Broncos helped out Kansas City.

"Yeah, listen. That's a boneheaded mistake by me," Payton told reporters after the game, via a team transcript. "They were calling one as well. I'm off a down. That was stupid."

The Chiefs were able to get the ball at the Broncos' 42-yard line, which led to Harrison Butker hitting a 60-yard field goal prior to the half. The Broncos couldn't get anything going offensively anyway, but they were in a 13-0 hole at halftime because of Payton's mistake. Denver ultimately lost, 19-8. 

Payton said he kept the field goal conversions in his back pocket, especially the side of the field the Chiefs were kicking on in the second quarter. He tried to explain his thought process. 

"We know it's a short week, but early reports -- if you do enough studying -- you know where the field goals are going to be tougher, you know where the kickoffs are going to be returned. All the stuff we had heard was dead on," Payton said. "The wind was blowing towards the tunnel, I don't know what it got to tonight. Certainly, the kickers handled it well. 

"You knew it was going to be hanging up there a little longer with the punts and the kickoffs. It was kind of blowing in the direction we thought, I don't know how much. It's a three-point swing there, but there are so many other things that jump into my mind relative to opportunities missed."

The mistake by Payton didn't excuse the team of having 197 yards of offense, but it also didn't help their morale heading into halftime. Early returns on Payton in Denver have not been good, with Thursday's mistake as a microcosm of bigger problems within the franchise.