Demaryius Thomas summed up the Colts defense in two players.
“Two defensive ends that play,” he said. “The whole defense is fast.”
Head Coach Josh McDaniels took a similar stance.
“They have very disruptive players, which starts with Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis on the edge — who get to the quarterback plenty and also take the ball away,” he said.
Last year’s AFC Pro Bowl starters at defensive end both start for the Colts. Together they have seven combined Pro Bowl selections and 153 sacks.
Neither defensive lineman tips the scales heavier than 270 pounds, and neither is taller than 6-foot-2, so they rely on leverage and — most of all — speed.
“Their defensive ends are as fast as a lot of teams’ wide receivers and backs,” McDaniels said.
Preparing for the tandem requires a creative mind. This week it means pitting two of the team’s defensive backs against the offensive line to give the linemen an idea of the style they’ll see on Sunday.
“They are going to be spinning, they are going to be rushing and they are going to line up a yard offside, too,” McDaniels said. “Anything we can do to simulate it, that’s what we are going to try and do.”
Freeney and Mathis outweigh Cassius Vaughn and David Bruton by a combined 107 pounds, but the Denver defensive backs will line up at defensive end on the scout team to simulate the speed of the Colts’ pass rushers.
“It’s going to be exciting to play a defensive end spot that you haven’t played,” Vaughn said.”(I’ll) just go out there and freelance a little bit, go against people bigger than you and try to outwork them a little bit.”
Of course Vaughn and Bruton can’t mix in the power-rush moves in Mathis and Freeney’s repertoire.
“It doesn’t matter what we do in practice, we are not going to be able to simulate Freeney and Mathis,” McDaniels said.
But they can try, and putting two of the teams fastest players at end is a good start.
“With Freeney and Mathis just being so fast off the ball, it’s going to help us a lot,” Vaughn said. “Whatever is going to help the team, I’m just going to try my best in doing it.”
VOTE FOR THOMAS
Following a debut in which he caught eight passes for 97 yards and a touchdown, Demaryius Thomas is up for multiple NFL awards online. You can vote for the wide receiver to win Pepsi Rookie of the Week here, and you can vote for his day to be named the GMC Never Say Never moment of Week 2 here.
BRIGGS SIGNS TO PRACTICE SQUAD
The Broncos signed linebacker Diyral Briggs to the practice squad. The 6-foot-4, 230 pound defender originally signed with the 49ers in 2009 as a college free agent from Bowling Green. He suited up for San Francisco in four games last year and the first game of this season. Now he takes over the practice squad spot vacated by Andre Brown, who was recently elevated to the active roster.
-Gabe Hiatt, DenverBroncos.com
Below are photos from today’s practice:
Tags: 2010, Andre Brown, Cassius Vaughn, David Bruton, Denver Broncos, Diyral Briggs, Dwight Freeny, Head Coach Josh McDaniels, Robert Mathis
going to need some fast plays to win against the colts, and I think we can get it done. The one thing any teams needs against the colts is to knock Manning on his butt a few times to get his attention. Hoping our D has a great day shutting them down, add to that the new face and fresh legs in Thomas and we should be on our way to another Win
GO BRONCOS
Kuper, Harris, Thomas, Maroney all out there. Im liking the recovery. soon buckhalter will be demoted for young legs. Im not expecting much out of maroney but im expecting him to be AT LEAST better than Buckhalter. I need him to learn to hold on to the ball and learn to run down hill. I see all the RBs are just salivating for a colts rush D that LOOKS weak.
PS: Glad McBath is back. BIG fan. Intercepted Manning last year too. same game where he hurt his forearm and was hurt for the season.
PS: well maybe they arent salivating, maybe its the coaches salivating and trying to get as many RBs ready as possible. Just as long as this doesnt turn into a commitiee. I have Moreno in fantasy
lol. But it probably will. have u seen NEs backfield over the past couple of years. a commitee nightmare with still subpar production
Good news and bad news in today’s practice:
Good: Starting right tackle Ryan Harris (ankle), starting right guard Chris Kuper (knee) and backup safety Darcel McBath (forearm) returned to practice.
Bad: Missing from practice were starting cornerbacks Champ Bailey (right heel) and Andre’ Goodman (thigh) and backup linebacker Wesley Woodyard (hamstring).
My prediction for this weeks game is colts win 34-27. Man, i hope I`m wrong on who wins. Come on Bronco`s.
Peyton Manning vs Syd’Quan Thompson & Perrish Cox..?
The predictions are trickling in at a real slow pace this week, understandable with Mc Kinney’s suicide occupying everyone’s thoughts the last couple of days, and I also think a lot of bloggers are uneasy about Bailey and Goodman status for the game. Well you are the first one to take us to lose this week, I think you wont be the only one though.
mex, Cox is Bailey’s back up but Nate Jones is Goodman’s back up, and Syd’Quan is Cox back up.
I hope I`m wrong though.
23-21 denver winning! I just hope we win!!
I still want to know why Woodyard isn’t starting. And why we haven’t stolen Charles Scott.
bay.. im just saying I’d like to see that and see what these guys are made of lol.. maybe suicidal at this point but they are good CBs i think..
This is the LB depth chart:
OLB Jason Hunter Jarvis Moss
RILB D.J. Williams Wesley Woodyard
LILB Mario Haggan Joe Mays
OLB Robert Ayers Jarvis Moss
I think Woodyard’s size is scary small, 6′, 222, big disadvantage for him.
ILB’s:
Haggan, 6’3″ 267.
DJ, 6’1, 242.
Joe Mays, 5’11″, 246.
OLB’s:
Hunter, 6’4″, 271.
Moss, 6’7″, 257.
Ayers, 6’3″, 274.
Yeah, but you don’t really want to be baptized going against Peyton Manning, LOL.
Yeah lol.. Moss should be a beast.. 6’7″..257 :s he must step up this season.. if he doesnt idk if he will ever do..
Hey all,another week!!!! I am still very excited about last week and have alot of hope for this week we have a good record aginst them at home and I hope that carries through to this year. I am very excited with Kyle Ortons play and the play of the recievers. It is in weeks like this that it just makes me cringe that we don’t have DOOM, but there is nothing we can do about that but man up. I realy havn’t seen alot of preasure put on the QB against us or from us. The from us part is dissaponting and I feel needs to be adressed. I am hopeing that we can muster a little better runing game against them I kinda feel like Moreno NEEDS to break out and what a better week to have it happen than against these guys with them missing Sanders again and as small as they are up front I don’t think that is too much to expect.
GO BRONCOS MISTAKE FREE FOOTBALL!!!!
OL in flux, DL no pass prush, DB hurting. Broncos not in Colts league at the moment. Colts 38-21.
Now I’m going to wash my mouth out. BBLLLEEEHHH!!!
I love the talent we have and they need to show no fear for Manning. They do need to show respect or they will be burnt. I hope to high water we don’t see a repeat of the game where DWill (No disrespect) got schooled by Manning/Wayne at Lucas about 4 seasons ago.
I hope we can play for the full 180 mins on both sides of the ball. I feel thats what let us down last year. Tackles will have thier hands full and need to be ontop of their game with the dynamic duo on the field and im not talking about those fools in Cincy.
No way our players can last 180 minutes, LOL.
lol.. i think every quarter has 15 mins buddy.. so that multiplied by 4 equals 60 minutes
..
I have respect and I fear Peyton Manning. Every team should. Our relativity young team is about to get schooled! Not trying to be negative here, just stating the fact. This QB will let you have the ball for over 40 minutes and still beat you. So I say throw in Cox and we have a chance cuz youth has its advantages! He has never seen them and they do not care after kick off. Game on! I got this off the DP site but something we all can be proud of and with number 11 remembered I say we beat the Colts!!
“Officially, at least, the Broncos still claim a sellout streak that dates back to 1969. The last time a team played a home game before a no sellout crowd was Dec. 14, 1969 when the Broncos beat the Cincinnati Bengals 27-16 in an AFL game before a crowd of 42,198 at old Mile High Stadium.”
ILMSDB
FTR
Hey bay, my prediction for sunday is 20-17 broncos. Really hope bailey and goody are able to play it ll be a long without them.
Hell in 1969 I was running around in my Bronco PJ’s. LOL
FTR
Well I’ll say somewhere in the ballpark of 35-42 colts…I think our offense is finally finding their feet but our banged up secondary won’t be able to stop the best QB since Elway. I hate to say we will lose but watching them destroy a good giants team makes me think this will be a tough one! On another note this will be a nice showing of where we stand in the NFL
GO BRONCOS!!!
38-23 colts
Maybe with the 180 minute thing refers to OVERTIME.
As far as Woodyard’s size goes, I think he plays a lot bigger than he is. And a fast inside linebacker can’t hurt. Look at Williams (even though he is 20 pounds heavier), his speed is what people always comment on. I think Woodyard and Williams in the middle would be formidable.
The clock says 60 minutes but my watch says 3 hours (180minutes). I hope the Broncos are still going strong more than an hour past kickoff.
I think the loss to our team will bind us. Our team and our coach will never be the same. I think that the events of this week will be a growing experience for McD and our team will come together after our tragic loss. Let’s suck it up and go win one for Kenny!
31-28 Broncos! (31 worked for us last week!)
Let’s play with some heart this week! Broncos Country needs a win!
I’m one of those that are waiting to see if Champ and Goody are going to play or not to predict how bad the Colts beat us.Sorry I don’t see us beating the best QB in the league without pressuring him,he’ll eat us alive.Our Oline isn’t 100%,so how in the Hell are we going to block Freeny and Mathis,sorry Broncos Country,I don’t see us winning this one.I hate to pick against my Broncos but I have a very bad gut feeling about this one guys.
This is part of why you don’t feel good about the game and who could blame you:
Subtract the late-season meaningless games in which Indianapolis was resting its starters for the playoffs, and Manning has won six in a row against the Broncos — and the average winning margin is 15.3 points.
KABOOM!!! #’s don’t lie, but yeah McD only lost one of those, so it’s a different ball game, kind of, but Manning is the same, if not better, so yeah, uphill battle all the way, we will learn more about if we are beginning to be legit again or not. And by the way, I really don’t think the performance of our team will be altered by McKinley’s suicide one way or another, I don’t see it as a hindrance nor a prop, after the first hit it will all be down to football as usual in my opinion. Either way I won’t be blaming a loss or praising a victory on the McKinley’s suicide effect, it wouldn’t seem right to me either way, just me.
For the ones who still have difficulties at accepting the fact that P. Manning is the best QB in the game now and a total pain in the behind of every team that faces him, here is some good stuff to that effect from our coach himself as reported by Legwold:
The NFL is a passer’s league, with lots of quarterbacks putting up big numbers. So why are coaches, players and personnel people quoted so often about the difficulty of facing Manning?
McDaniels on Wednesday offered a quality explanation:
“You can’t beat the coordinator in Indianapolis,” he said. “If somebody else calls a play for a different team and you call a defense that’s better than the play that they called, you can get them. That’s not going to happen against this team. Whatever play they called, if you have a defense and you say, ‘I like that,’ (Manning is) going to see it and he’s going to change it. He sees things, his preparation — there are no flaws in his preparation, I’m positive of that. We’re going to play our (defensive) call, he’s going to know it, and he’s going to try to run the best play he has against it. And you feel like that on 70 plays. Some other teams, you feel like that 10 or 15 percent of the game. This guy, you feel like that pretty much the whole day. You’ve got to assume he knows what you’re doing.”
And McD has now played Peyton ten times, 9 with N-E, once with us, so he oughta know…
Correction, 12 times, three times in the playoffs.
I think we might have a chance with home field and out players/coached coming together for Kenny! My parents are Gamecocoks, and he was my father’s favorite player. Lets win this one for Kenny guys! I say Prater knocks one from 40+ to give us the last second victory, 34-31 Broncos!
Go Broncos! This one is for you Kenny. Hope you enjoy the view from above! Gamecocks beat Auburn this weekend too for you buddy!!
Listening to McD makes it sound like some of us are saying, a long day.
Anyhow not everyone agrees since we have 9 bloggers so far predicting us to win vs. only 3 who don’t. That’s what fans are all about, they don’t care how the odds stack up against us in a game, they don’t care that we’ve been trough a rough week, they don’t care that we are 6 points underdog at home, they just believe everything can be overcome and that victory is for the taking. I always wish I was more like them, but then again I know I can’t because the up and down emotions of a season thinking that way would be way to great for my ticker, and I want to tick for many more years of Broncos watching, so I keep it even keel by not getting my hopes overly up on games like these, sorry but I definitely don’t see how we can win this Sunday.
Good morning everyone! Last night I predicted us to win 31-28. I don’t know how realistic that is but what the heck. I guess I’m just trying to be a ‘glass is half full kinda guy. I guess I’m not the only one. Check this out:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/470316-nfl-picks-week-3-10-shockers-youll-never-see-coming#page/15
All I know is that the swear jar will be filling up at break-neck speed during this game! LOL
I’m an eternal Bronco optimist. I go into every game determined that our Broncos will pull out a victory. And this week isn’t any different.
Will Peyton score a bunch of points on us? I have no doubt. He is just that good. But I really like what our Offense has built so far and I think this will be 2 O’s duking it out in a real good ole’ mile high slugfest!
Denver wins 37-34
GO BRONCOS!
37-34 would definitely make it on NFL Replay.
And these are my reasons why:
On Offense our running game will most likely be what it always is, subpar, so very little chance to keep Manning off the field.
So with our scarce running game threat Orton may be an easy target for the agressive Colts D with Freeney and Matthis.
On Defense we will most likely have no pass rush on Manning like so far this year so he may be able to carve us, namely with Clark on our LB’s.
And the new Colts running game, 160 yards last game, could have a good day against our D that hasn’t stopped the run since last year’s Baltimore game, 16 games ago.
But folks will say the Colts are no good against the run, we should be able to exploit that. Since the Giants last week got 120 yards with their great running game, I don’t see how we could get over a hundred.
Honestly our only shot is turnovers, like last year against them, which kept us in the game with three, but with Bailey and Goodman as question marks, that even makes the challenge greater as if it needed to be. And the home field advantage? Manning has never shown to be affected by that, he is a dome QB and he even beat us in the snow, remember? And our coverage on ST as been so bad and Manning doesn’t even need a short field to drive it down the field.
Looking forward to some of you guys making me see the bright spots that may turn this game around, because other than turnovers, I’m stumped on this one.
Camharland, the BR article basically says the same thing I do, turnovers is key:
Why The Broncos Will Win
Kyle Orton continues his stellar play. The defense causes Indianapolis to turn the ball over and some of the old school Mile High Magic comes back into play.
Orton keeping doing it won’t be enough, Mile High Magic has no effect on Manning, it’s all about the turnovers. It’s a must have this week, good thing we had three last week maybe it will snow ball into more.
baylin I have to agree with your take on Peyton being the best qb out there, I am just hoping that their front line will soften up a bit and give our D some shots at him. Dumping him on his butt a few times is the one strategy that works for teams that take them down. I don’t think he worries much about Baily or Goodman he knows how to play that game so I am hoping some of our new talent wanting to make themselves known will take advantage in this game to stand out. Let’s face it we don’t have a lot of success against the Colts so our best shot is to bring something new to this game. Regardless it’s Broncos football so I’m loving it
GO BRONCOS
It is definitely the way to beat the Clots, disrupt Peyton, but unfortunatley we haven’t shown the ability to be able to bring pressure on any QB so far. But for argument’s sake, let’s say Wink opens up the pass rush flood gates and we are successfull, guess what, we will then even be more susceptible to their new found rush attack (160 yards against the Giants), and the way we have been against the run here comes a 200 yard day on the ground against us. With the Colts now, it’s like pick your poison, and they are all lethal.
The bad thing about playing against Peyton Manning is that he is his own Offensive Coordinator,he reads the Defense,he dosen’t like it,so he changes the play,not audibles,like one or two plays,he knows the ENTIRE playbook and can change the play into any play in the playbook(only QB in the NFL that can do it)he even motions for players to come on and off the field(dosen’t even need a coach)he is so hard to predict.Then there’s the no huddle,he runs it to keep the other team from substituting on Defense,that’s how he wears down the Defense so fast.You got 300 lb Dlinemen that are so tired,but they can’t sub because they don’t have time (very smart on their part)it’s just the hardest Offense to defend in the entire NFL.Then you got Freeney and Mathis the best pass rushing tandum in the NFL.If Champ and Goody can’t go,as Dick Enberg would say:OH MY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just one man’s opinion that don’t mean a Helluva lot.
But hey Broncos Country I like the fact that most of you are still picking us to win,way to get behind our Broncos.I wished I could pick us,but it’s like playing the lottery you know you aint gonna win,the odds are against you,but you gotta try like Hell anyway.GO BRONCS!!!!!!!!
BFE
Clots…..haha…Baylin.
Yeah, they’re like a blood clot, they can kill you, LOL.
LMAO…..TRUE.
BTW, did you read my 7:30 am post, McD says some of the same things you just did about Manning, but you did add a few good points of your own, like the one where it’s impossible to substitute on D against him, major drawback on most team.
Yeah I read your 7:30 post,but like McD,anybody that knows Peyton already knows that he’s a QB,coach,and Coordinator all wrapped up into one.And the fact you can’t sub is a HUGE factor,but maybe their Oline will get tired too,since the air is thin.
The fact you brought up about our LBs not being able to cover Clark is a good one.Not only do we have to worry about Wayne,Garcon,and Collie,but Clark is very hard to defend with a LB or a Safety.