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Evan & Tiki

Sean Payton’s 4th Down Gamble That Changed the AFC Championship

Evan & Tiki

Audacy

Sports

4.2988 Ratings

🗓️ 26 January 2026

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The moment that flipped the game. Sean Payton’s 4th down decision near the goal line looms large as the Broncos never score again. Evan, Tiki, and Sean react to Payton’s explanation, dissect the play call, and debate whether aggression made sense with a backup quarterback and points at a premium. Listener calls weigh in on old-school football, weather chaos, and whether that 4th down choice still looks defensible once the snow took over.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

When Sean Payton on a fourth and one from the 14-yard line, early second quarter with a 7-0 lead,

0:07.4

decided to not only go for it, but not run the football, not do a tush push, not just try to run the ball.

0:14.0

Like, it was a play action that was pressure, and it obviously did not work out.

0:19.2

And the Denver Broncos never scored again.

0:21.5

Before we get the professional opinion of Tiki Barber

0:24.8

and the raw animalistic opinions of me and Sean,

0:28.1

let us hear, in fairness, from the head coach of the Denver Broncos,

0:32.2

no editing.

0:32.7

So it's a long clip.

0:34.8

Sean Payton has asked,

0:36.3

what and why did you make the decision to go for it on fourth and one

0:41.6

instead of kicking the field goal to go up 10-0?

0:44.1

I just felt like, man, we had momentum to get up 14.

0:49.5

It felt like we had a good call.

0:53.6

And where were we at yard line-wise there?

0:59.3

Yeah, I think the feeling was, man, let's be aggressive.

1:08.3

You know, to get up 14, I was just watching the way our defense was playing.

1:16.1

And, you know, the only, I mean, look, the turnover on our end resulting in a touchdown.

1:23.3

And outside of that, man, I thought we did a good job in containing them.

1:31.6

There'll be a number of things when we watch the tape I'll look at and, you know,

1:40.0

critique and pay close attention to.

1:43.1

But there's a hard fought game and we didn't do it enough to win it. Teak, what did you think of the decision? What did you think of his answer? So, I mean, I think his answer is right, because defensively, they had forced three ponds already at that point from the, or four points. No, was it, three punts? Yeah, three puns. It was three it was three puns and three possessions yep puns by the Denver defense on this New England

...

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