White is the New Orange

If you are reading this column, I assume it is not going to be news to you that the Denver Broncos are the current World Champions having beaten the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50.  Denver were the designated “Home” team for the game but chose to wear their White uniforms instead of the more traditional Orange home strip due, to their previous Super Bowl record whilst wearing Orange, Spoiler Alert!  It is Not Good.  However, if like me you have seen the game already, you will know that on that day, Sunday 7^th February 2016 at the Field of Jeans, Santa Clara, California, and Denver could have worn White, Orange, Black or Purple with Green spots and still have taken home the Lombardi trophy with them.  Thanks to one of the more dominant defensive performances in Playoff history.

 

I say Playoff history as ever since the Post-Season started the Denver defence has been operating on a different level, which cumulated in their Super Bowl showing.  Bearing in mind this was already the number one ranked defence at the end of the regular season, to find even more is a huge compliment to the Defensive Co-Ordinator Wade Phillips and the realisation of a two-year odyssey for Broncos legend John Elway.  Following the embarrassing defeat to Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 48, Elway set about rebuilding his team with a Championship calibre defence, something he has realised in spades.

So just how good is this defence?  Where does it rank when compared to the all-time defences that are always recalled at these times.  The Steel Curtain, the 85 Bears, the 86 Giants, the 2000 Ravens and the 2013 Seahawks?  There are also some great defences in the league today, the Carolina Panthers themselves are an incredibly tough defence built around the driving force that is Luke Kuechly, the Houston Texans are built around the unique abilities of now 3 times Defensive player of the year JJ Watt, but this Broncos unit excel both individually and as the sum of their parts.

 

Von Miller was the number two pick in the draft in 2011 and since then has shown to be one of the better defensive players in the game, but in these playoffs he has elevated to a new level that even Watt struggles to compete with, making key plays at key times in the games, and at times making it look like that every opponents’ possession is an opportunity for the Broncos to score.  He has simply imposed his will on whoever has guarded him and has made upper echelon quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Cam Newton at times fear for their health.  Opposite Miller there is of course DeMarcus Ware who himself is still playing at an all-pro level, making the decision for Offensive Linemen about who to double team just about impossible.  Ware appears to have a lot left in the tank as well as fulfilling a mentorship role.

The front 3 are probably the most underrated components of this defence, Derek Wolfe, Sylvester Williams and Malik Jackson have shown that all so important ability to be able to stop the run and still get pressure through the centre thus trapping opponents QB’s between themselves and Miller and Ware coming off the edges.  Usually teams with a good front 7 struggle at the back end and so rely on the pass rush to influence throws as much as the skill set of the defensive backs.  Not so this defence, in Aqib Talib and Chris Harris the Broncos have one of the best cornerback pairings in the league and if you try to go over the middle the linebackers, Brandon Marshall and Danny Trevathan along with the safeties TJ Ward and Darian Stewart are tackling machines and will have no problem hitting you and hitting you hard, over and over again.

If the Broncos can keep this unit together in this age of Free Agency and can afford to pay Von Miller the sort of money he is rumoured to want, then this could very easily be an all-time defence that could just as easily be in with a shout of another Denver back to back championship next year.  What is really impressive is that they have made this run with next to no real help from the offense, which when you have Peyton Manning at QB feels like sacrilege to say.  The game plan from Denver was to pin the opponents back with a punt, trusting the special teams units to do their job (as a certain Patriots coach might say), then send the defence out there to force short fields.  Then it was either a run or a slant route throw, if need be take the Field Goal and repeat.

In this era of crazy passing yardage and media insisting it’s a quarterbacks league, this Broncos team showed a differing template, one of real dominant defence and ball control, what we do know is that this is a copycat league so expect to see even more premium on pass rushers and defence in the next year or so.  Those other great defences mentioned above, most of them had some more help from their offences than this Broncos team have had, the Bears had Walter Payton for example, meaning that this Broncos defence is on the field for a lot longer than those teams and yet still maintained its high standards. In 2016 there is every chance that we will not see Peyton Manning back (trivia nuts need to remember it was Benny Fowler who caught Manning’s last throw, a 2 point play) and in some ways that might just open up the passing game a little more.  Can you imagine the Broncos with that defence and an offence that moved the ball better? the prospect could well be frightening.  Maybe games where they go 1 of 13 on third down will be a thing of the past, and then this defence can have a breather for once.

If the Broncos do keep this team together here is one prediction for you in the 2016 regular season, JJ Watt will do well to earn a fourth defensive player of the year award.  Von Miller time is coming!  In White, Orange or Blue it won’t matter to Broncos country.