Russell Wilson, I have “great relationship”

If Sean Payton felt the need to apologize to quarterback Russell Wilson for laying into him during the second half of Saturday night’s blowout loss at Detroit, he isn’t saying so publicly.

The Broncos head coach on Monday reiterated his stance on the matter when asked if he felt the need to address the moment, captured and replayed on NFL Network’s broadcast of the game, with Wilson or the team.

“Not at all,” Payton said. “First off, we haven’t had a team meeting. ‘Russ’ and I have a great relationship. No, not at all.”

In the aftermath of the 42-17 loss, that moment of Payton wheeling from chewing out the officiating crew after a fourth-and-1 offensive offside call on Quinn Meinerz that wiped a touchdown off the board to chewing out Wilson, standing stoically on the sideline next to quarterback coach Davis Webb, became the story of the game.

Payton on Saturday said his conversations with Wilson are, “none of your business.” On Monday, he didn’t shed much more light.

“Nothing more to share,” he said. “It’s certainly in-game intensity, heat of the moment, all those things, but nothing more to add.”

Payton maintained that, “The anger and frustration in that sequence comes from the fourth-down call and the touchdown and what was later called a penalty.

“All of a sudden now, we’re sitting at fourth-and-call-it-six, instead of fourth-and-a-half-a-yard,” he added. “We’re trying to get within two scores and it’s an important sequence relative to the game and trying to climb back in it.”

That still doesn’t explain why he would take that anger out on Wilson in addition to the officiating crew, but Payton wasn’t saying.

Tight end Adam Trautman played for Payton for two seasons in New Orleans before signing in Denver as a free agent this spring and downplayed the situation.

“You do have to have tough skin, but on any team. It doesn’t pertain to just him,” Trautman said. “This is a very high-pressure, results-driven business and when you’re not getting them, tensions can run high sometimes. It’s not tensions, it’s, like, a certain instance. It happens all the time and obviously that was just caught on TV. It’s honestly not a big deal at all to us.

“Obviously we were struggling on offense and it got heated for a second, but we forget about that stuff and it’s forgotten about the next day. Not worried about that at all in our building.”

Payton on Monday did walk back through the two plays before that fourth-and-goal snap, when he opted against challenging whether Jaleel McLaughin scored on a second-and-goal catch or Javonte Williams scored on a third-and-goal carry.

“The second-down call is the call that has the chance to be reviewed,” Payton said Monday. “It’s Jaleel’s play. In hindsight, does he get in or not? It’s still hard to tell. Javonte, I had a good enough angle on that. We’re sitting at the half-yard line and I’m thinking that we have a good goal line plan in this game. I’m one to throw a challenge flag and burn them and use them, but I didn’t feel strong enough that we had crossed the goal line. It certainly looks close.

“My history relative to them changing that type of call has been average at best.”

Now, of course, the only thing that will matter for the Broncos is whether they can bounce back from the four-score loss and win their final three games, starting with New England at home on Christmas Eve. Payton said he kept an eye on Sunday’s’ games, which broke almost entirely against the Broncos’ playoff hopes.

What other teams do will be moot, however, if Denver doesn’t get to 10-7 by any means necessary.