Nathaniel Hackett's first game at home was so full of sideline gaffes that Denver fans openly jeered their new head coach

• Nathaniel Hackett's tenure as head coach of the Denver Broncos is off to a bad start.
• Hackett has already shown an inability to manage critical clock situations in just two games at the helm.

The Nathaniel Hackett era is off to a brutal start in Denver.

After a season opening loss on the road to the Seattle Seahawks, one that largely hinged on Hackett's mismanagement of the clock late in the game, the Broncos were back home in Denver hoping to right the ship in Week 2 against the lowly Houston Texans.

While the Broncos ultimately escaped with a win, their victory only came after another embarrassing, under-prepared performance from their new head coach.

The Denver offense was stagnant for much of the game, managing just six points through the first three quarters, against a Texans defense that is nothing to write home about.

Trailing 9-6 in the third, the Broncos faced third-and-inches from the Texans' 35-yard line. With running back Javonte Williams averaging five yards per carry on the day, he seemed like an easy choice to pick up the distance needed for the first down. Or, if Hackett was feeling a bit spicy, he could trust his superstar quarterback Russell Wilson, to whom the Broncos just committed literally a quarter-billion dollars, the chance to make a play.

Instead, Hackett dialed up a fullback sweep to Andrew Beck, who received the ball from Wilson five yards behind the scrimmage and never made any of the ground back.

It was just the second carry of Beck's NFL career.

Still, all was not lost for the Broncos at this point. Hackett could either keep his offense on the field to try and pick up the remaining yardage necessary for a first down, or send out kicker Brandon McManus to attempt a field goal and tie the game.

Eventually, Hackett decided on the latter, but he took too long to make up his mind, leaving his kicking unit to take a delay-of-game penalty.

Now five yards further away from both the first down marker and the uprights, Hackett and the Broncos were forced to punt.

It's tough to imagine a clearer scenario, wherein a coach on the sideline is directly at fault for taking points off the board for his team.

In the fourth quarter, the Broncos were forced to waste two more timeouts due to Hackett's indecision.

By then, the Denver crowd had taken to loudly counting down the play clock for the home team, mocking their new coach's inability to get a play off in time.

The Broncos would eventually put 10 points on the board in the fourth quarter to escape with a 16-9 victory, but it sure wasn't pretty.

After the game, Hackett didn't blame the home crowd for turning on him.

"I would be booing myself," Hackett said. "I was getting very frustrated."

"We get down to the red zone two times. Don't get another touchdown, which is unbelievably frustrating. I don't think we have scored in there yet. That's something that all of our guys have to step it up. Whether we run the ball more, whatever we're doing, we just have to execute at a higher level."

Hackett added that he still has work to do to get on the same page as Wilson, when it comes to making key decisions mid-game.

"I just have to be sure that I'm communicating to Russell [Wilson] exactly what we're going to do in that situation, just so there is not that late timing of getting out there and getting a field goal out there late because that was unfortunate. That shouldn't happen, that's on me, but I'll clean that up."

As for Wilson, he attempted as best he could to laugh off the boo birds.

"I guess that was helpful if needed," Wilson said of the crowd's countdown. "I guess they do that in basketball sometimes — you know I've been around some basketball players and stuff like that. You know, this crowd was amazing tonight."

The road doesn't get any easier for the Broncos moving forward, with the San Francisco 49ers traveling to Denver for a primetime matchup next Sunday night.

With a national audience watching, Hackett has to hope that his third NFL outing will be cleaner than his first two, as the Denver crowd doesn't seem likely to extend him the benefit of the doubt much longer.