Russell Wilson needs to take command away from Nathaniel Hackett and run the show in Denver

Russell Wilson was expected to march back into Seattle and lead his Denver Broncos to victory on Monday night. Instead, his Broncos offense totally collapsed in the red zone. They capped the night with head coach Nathaniel Hackett forgetting both how to manage the clock and that record-long field goals aren't a sure bet.

It was a strange sight that saw Geno Smith emerge as the hero. So are the Broncos doomed? No, not at all. But what the finish proved is that Wilson needs to make his voice heard and run the show with a rookie head coach in Denver.

Russell Wilson is too experienced to allow what happened

Denver Broncos v Seattle Seahawks

The first issue of the night saw Denver running backs fumble twice near the goal line. Of course, the quarterback was not to blame for his backs losing the ball. Yet the Broncos were in the shotgun from the one-yard line both times. How does that make logical sense?

Seahawks fans surely had flashbacks to the infamous Super Bowl loss in which Wilson was tasked with passing from near the goal line, instead of handing the ball to Marshawn Lynch. In this case, the shotgun snaps helped the Seahawks.

Yet there was a more egregious mistake made by the Denver offense that will have the entire NFL world talking all week. That came as time ran down in the final minute of the fourth quarter. This saw the Broncos reach the 46-yard line of the Seahawks with around a minute to go. They had all three timeouts and were facing a fourth-and-five.

Instead of using even just one timeout, the offense huddled and called a timeout with one second left on the play clock. Fans were left in shock as Hackett then decided to kick a field goal, which was missed, allowing Seattle to win.

Hackett is a rookie head coach and Wilson is a veteran star in the NFL. The latter just signed a massive contract and is the face of the franchise in Denver. Surely, he could have used common sense and called a timeout to save his coach from this situation.

It makes sense that Wilson stuck to the plan in Week 1 and just listened to his coach. Yet his coach was clearly in over his head. It's perfectly fine for a quarterback making this much money to take some control.

There was a ton of overreaction this week from fans calling for Hackett's job. He is obviously not going to get fired after one game, or at all this season, barring some shocking situation. But the Broncos did pay Wilson a fortune with the goal of winning a Super Bowl. If Hackett keeps making primetime blunders, he won't last long.

At the same time, some responsibility must fall upon the quarterback. If he is not showing proper leadership, there is nothing his coach can do to save the offense.