Down by four points, with just over four minutes left in the game at Cleveland’s six-yard line on fourth-and-1, Vance Joseph called his special-teams unit onto the field Saturday night.
Brandon McManus made the field goal, but fans in Denver booed the decision.
Trying this again, but I'm even hangrier now than I was with my last tweet.
Broncos make the FG but trail by one and fans are angry and they're booing.
Everyone is getting cranky here. And as I mentioned before, I'm hangry.
— Nicki Jhabvala (@NickiJhabvala) December 16, 2018
And it turns out, it was an awful call because just a few short plays later, Cleveland was already in scoring range after a huge run by Nick Chubb.
CHUBB!!
40 yard gain!#CLEvsDEN https://t.co/vGvQqiVqIx
— Cleveland Browns (@Browns) December 16, 2018
Not surprisingly, Joseph’s ultra-conservative decision making was widely panned on Twitter.
Well if he loses this game, he’s still getting paid but not to coach much longer for the Broncos. https://t.co/Vue9fFv46t
— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) December 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/1074153968861769728
Kicking a field goal here on 4th and 1 is insane
— Eric Rosenthal (@ericsports) December 16, 2018
https://twitter.com/SportsByStephen/status/1074153700929757184
If I owned an NFL team and my coach kicked right there, down 17-13 with 4th and 1 inside the other team's five, he's fired before the ball gets snapped.
— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) December 16, 2018