defense in 2nd half vs Carolina...wow

[mwill07]

Possibly the best stretch of defensive football I can remember seeing - certainly from the Broncos. I was at the game and this mostly happened on the opposite end of the field so I didn't really get a feel for how dominant this all was, but watching it on TV tonight...holy cow.

let's pick it up after the Manning fumble (penalties removed):

Panther possession 1:

1-10 CAR 34 Cam Newton pass incomplete short left intended for Brandon LaFell is intercepted by Tony Carter at CAR-40 and returned for 40 yards, touchdown

Great penetration and hustle by Miller, forcing the pick-6.

Panther possession 2:

1-15 CAR 6 DeAngelo Williams right guard for -5 yards (tackle by Von Miller)
2-20 CAR 1 Cam Newton pass complete short middle to Brandon LaFell for 21 yards (tackle by Danny Trevathan)
1-10 CAR 22 Cam Newton pass incomplete short left intended for Steve Smith (defended by Robert Ayers)
1-10 CAR 35 DeAngelo Williams left end for no gain (tackle by Derek Wolfe)
2-10 CAR 35 Cam Newton pass incomplete short right intended for Steve Smith
3-10 CAR 35 Cam Newton sacked by Chris Harris for -3 yards

only bad spot - the big play to LaFell. Outside of that, there was 1 sack, on tackle for a loss, and Cam had constant pressure every time he was back to pass. The defense was absolutely flying around the ball. There was one additional sack that had a horse-collar 15 yarder tacked on - ticky tack call, if you ask me.

Panther Possession 3:

1-10 CAR 22 DeAngelo Williams left guard for 4 yards (tackle by Justin Bannan)
2-6 CAR 26 Cam Newton pass complete short left to Greg Olsen for 4 yards (tackle by Wesley Woodyard and Tony Carter)
3-2 CAR 30 Cam Newton up the middle for -4 yards (tackle by Von Miller)

the 3rd and 2 stop by Miller - wow.

panther possession 4:

1-10 CAR 20 Jonathan Stewart for -4 yards (tackle by Von Miller). Jonathan Stewart fumbles (forced by Von Miller), recovered by Jordan Gross at CAR-16
2-14 CAR 16 Cam Newton pass incomplete short right intended for Louis Murphy
3-14 CAR 16 Cam Newton pass incomplete short right intended for Brandon LaFell (defended by Robert Ayers)

Panther possession 5:

1-15 CAR 6 Cam Newton pass complete short right to Mike Tolbert for 8 yards (tackle by Keith Brooking)
2-7 CAR 14 Cam Newton sacked by Robert Ayers for -12 yards
3-19 CAR 2 Cam Newton sacked by Mike Adams for -2 yards, safety

hell of a sack by Ayers, bringing them back to the 2.

in 5 panther possessions, the Broncos logged:

• 1 defensive TD
• 1 safety
• 1 int
• 1 forced fumble
• 3 sacks
• 3 tackles for a loss (all by Von Miller)
• 7 net yards (excluding penalties)
• 4 plays went for positive yards, 6 plays that went for negative yards.
• 3 three-and-outs

I don't care who you are - '85 Bears, '00 Ravens...That's a fantastic stretch of defensive football.

[mwill07]

by the way - I don't care any more about Watt's 10 passes defended. Von's tackles for a loss are much more disruptive. Von's performance on Sunday should automatically put him in the drivers seat for DPOY. He was dominant, disruptive, and game changing.

[sirhcyennek81]

Looked like a playoff caliber defense

Dare I say...a superbowl winning defense...

[DBroncos4life]

Originally Posted by mwill07

by the way - I don't care any more about Watt's 10 passes defended. Von's tackles for a loss are much more disruptive. Von's performance on Sunday should automatically put him in the drivers seat for DPOY. He was dominant, disruptive, and game changing.

What Miller has done so far with the double digit sacks and double digit TFLs has taken 20 other players a full season to do.

[Jay3]

I've never seen anything truly like it -- they were gang-tackling Newton. It was like the ball was snapped and 3 or 4 guys just came at him like spider monkeys.

[gyldenlove]

If this defence keeps up the steam they have had since the second half of the last San Diego game, there is no team in the league we can't beat in any given week.

Interesting stat by the way, the Broncos defence leads the league in sacks with 31, the Broncos offence leads the league in sacks allowed with 11 (tied with Houston), that means our sack differential is +20, the last 10 super bowl winners all went positive in that stat, with the Giants topping the list at 20 and 25 in their 2 recent super bowl seasons.

[mwill07]

Originally Posted by Jay3

I've never seen anything truly like it -- they were gang-tackling Newton. It was like the ball was snapped and 3 or 4 guys just came at him like spider monkeys.

it was insane. The Panthers could do nothing, outside of that LaFell completion. Every tackle - every single one, had about 5 Broncos involved.

[Wes Mantooth]

Reminded me of the 97 team against Carolina at home.

[Atwater His Ass]

I liked how the team didn't skip a beat after doom went down. Really impressed with Ayers in that game.

Sacks basically function as a turnover in most case; complete drive killers.

[mwill07]

Originally Posted by Atwater His Ass

I liked how the team didn't skip a beat after doom went down. Really impressed with Ayers in that game.

Sacks basically function as a turnover in most case; complete drive killers.

That's another great point - this dominating performance came w/o Dumervil...Ayers had one sack and at least 2 QB disruptions.

[SeedReaver]

Originally Posted by mwill07

That's another great point - this dominating performance came w/o Dumervil...Ayers had one sack and at least 2 QB disruptions.

Depth can be just as important as any starter.

[Old Dude]

It's been awhile since this team was hitting on so many cylinders. Let the good times roll.

[ZONA]

I thought with our offense being able to produce so many points weekly (throw a game out here or there, that happens), our defense just needed to be decent for us to have a shot at winning the Superbowl. If our defense keeps this up, along with our special teams, boy it's going to make life really difficult for other teams.

[mwill07]

Originally Posted by ZONA

I thought with our offense being able to produce so many points weekly (throw a game out here or there, that happens), our defense just needed to be decent for us to have a shot at winning the Superbowl. If our defense keeps this up, along with our special teams, boy it's going to make life really difficult for other teams.

if our defense can string together more stretches like that, we will be hands down the best team in the league.

[cutthemdown]

Originally Posted by Old Dude

It's been awhile since this team was hitting on so many cylinders. Let the good times roll.

hard to believe this is the team who just a couple yrs ago could not get the right amount of players on the field for the defense etc etc. Haven't seen football like this from Denver since we were beating the Falcons in the Superbowl.

[Bacchus]

Check out the second half of the S.D. game. They force 4 turnovers I believe. Checkout the whole games minus the garbage drive at the end Against New Orleans.This defense is playing terrific and honestly I see Denver blowing S.D. out on Sunday.

[SportinOne]

Originally Posted by Bacchus

Check out the second half of the S.D. game. They force 4 turnovers I believe. Checkout the whole games minus the garbage drive at the end Against New Orleans.This defense is playing terrific and honestly I see Denver blowing S.D. out on Sunday.

I guess i'd have to re watch the New Orleans game but i more or less felt like their offense was bad that night independent of our defense.

[mwill07]

Originally Posted by SportinOne

I guess i'd have to re watch the New Orleans game but i more or less felt like their offense was bad that night independent of our defense.

That's how I felt about the 2nd half of the SD game too, but after a few of these - making other teams look bad, you've gotta start believing that this is actually happening - this D is becoming more and more dominant as they find their way.

[55CrushEm]

Originally Posted by Wes Mantooth

Reminded me of the 97 team against Carolina at home.

I remember that game.....I believe it snowed for at least part of it. Also, Flash Gordon had TWO punt returns for TDs in the game.....both coming in one quarter.

[Broncos_OTM]

I think there maybe a case for denver playing vanilla offense so as we don't show alot of it.

[TheChamp24]

That was one of the best defensive performances I've seen the Broncos have. Like, wow.
And individually, Von Miller was a freakin monster. I've never seen him play like that. Forcing fumbles, sacks, tackles for a loss, NEGATIVE plays.
He should be right there with Watt for DPOY IMO.

[Bacchus]

Originally Posted by SportinOne

I guess i'd have to re watch the New Orleans game but i more or less felt like their offense was bad that night independent of our defense.

The Saints have won 4 out of the last 5 games and their offense has been great in the other games. One thin I took away from the Saints game is how much faster Denver's defense was than the Saints offense. As soon as the receiver caught the ball he was going down. Graham had little that night excluding the final drive.

I noticed that last week too. How slow did Cam Newton look out there? He looked damn slow and I know he isn't.