The only finger pointing apparently at Broncos Park on Monday was Sean Payton pointing at himself.

A day after Denver’s stunning 29-28 defeat at Indianapolis on a 45-yard field goal by Spencer Shrader on the final play that came after a Broncos penalty, defensive end Zach Allen said nobody was “blaming others.”  Payton, though, took responsibility for what happened when outside linebacker Dondrea Tillman was flagged for a leverage penalty when Shrader had missed a 60-yard field goal short and wide right with 1 second left.

“That’s on me in that situation,’’ said Denver’s head coach. “It’s not on (specials team coordinator) Darren (Rizzi), it’s not on Tillman.”

Payton said “the alignment got wrong” on the attempted block and “the call was correct” on Tillman for using illegal leverage over the Colts’ right guard. However, he said he should not have called an aggressive block play on such a low-percentage field-goal attempt. In five previous NFL games, Shrader’s longest boot was 48 yards.

“My big regret flying home was that’s more on for a closer field goal,’’ Payton said of the block call. “That’s more for a gimme than a 60-yard attempt, and that’s on me.”

No players after Sunday’s game in the locker room were heard blaming Tillman, kicker Wil Lutz, who clanged a 42-yard field-goal attempt off the right upright with 3:15 left before the Colts’ winning drive, or anyone. And on Monday, Allen said that continued to be the case.

“There’s not a lot of egos (on the team), so we correct the film,’’ Allen said. “Guys aren’t kind of defending themselves or blaming others. It’s, ‘What can I do better?’ Guys have that attitude and again we had that (Monday). Guys are accountable. It’s a special group to be a part of. So I’m excited to see what we do this Sunday.”

The Broncos next play Sunday at the Los Angeles Chargers. If this year is like last year, they could bounce back in a big way.

The Broncos on Nov. 10, 2024, suffered a similar heartbreaking loss at Kansas City when offensive lineman Alex Forsyth was bowled over on the final play and the Chiefs blocked Lutz’s 35-yard field-goal attempt. After the 16-14 loss, the Broncos crushed Atlanta 38-6 the following Sunday to start a four-game winning streak.

“Both games were tough losses and it’s not just one play that determines the game, and they’re pretty similar, so there’s a lot to learn from both of them,’’ center Luke Wattenberg said in comparing losses to the Chiefs and Colts. “You learn from the tough losses and you correct mistakes and you move on to the next week and that’s all you can really do.”

Allen said it helps in bouncing back that the Broncos have “a mature group” and that “guys handled it the right way” Monday.

Payton said the key is to “shed one” loss and make sure that it “doesn’t affect another” game. He called it important now to “refocus on an important” game against an AFC West foe.

There were things Payton liked in the loss to the Colts. He was happy with the play of the offensive line, which did not allow Indianapolis to sack Bo Nix or even get a quarterback hit. Payton sought to establish the ground game by calling runs on the first three plays and was pleased with Denver rushing for 118 yards. J.K. Dobbins led the way with 76 yards on 14 carries.

Payton did not like that Indianapolis averaged 9.8 yards on first down and he was disappointed with some busted coverages, which contributed to the Colts rolling up a whopping 473 yards against Denver’s vaunted defense. He was unhappy with the Broncos being penalized eight times for 83 yards. And he certainly didn’t like the Broncos being unable to put away the game despite several golden opportunities.

“In the fourth quarter on the road, we controlled a lot of where we wanted to be relative to that football game, and we didn’t capitalize on it,’’ Payton said. “We have to start with ourselves as teachers, as coaches, and look very closely at, ‘How can we improve in these areas?’ … It’s hard to sustain success in our league as a yo-yo team, up and down.”

The Broncos were up 28-23 when Nix threw an interception on third-and-3 at the Indianapolis 28 with 11:25 left in the game, which led to a 28-yard field goal by Shrader. With a 28-26 lead, Denver had first-and-10 at the Colts 25 with 4:47 remaining before penalties set them back and Lutz missed the field goal.

Then, of course, there was the penalty on Tillman at the end that led to Shrader’s winning field goal, his fifth of the game.

“We felt Tillman jumped pretty well,’’ Payton said of the strategy before Shrader’s 60-yard attempt. “The idea was to work (Colts defensive tackle Grover Stewart) of their field-goal protection unit who lined up at left guard where (Broncos defensive tackle) D.J. (Jones) is going to be able to push down. That’s legal. Then right at the last minute, they flipped sides inside and so now we’re on a different defender, or a different offensive blocker. … Tillman has some pretty good leaps, and we ended up on the wrong side and we didn’t execute it. Before any and all of that, though, we should be working a normal interior rush with a 60-yard attempt.”

Payton took the blame for that. Now he hopes the Broncos can bounce back in the same manner they did last season after the loss at Kansas City.