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Last season, the Denver Broncos were riding high entering their Week 9 game in Indianapolis to face the Colts. The team was 7-0 and possessed a defense that was consistently striking mistake-forcing fear into the hearts of opposing quarterbacks, often battering them into proverbial submission.
During that Nov. 8 matchup, the defense tried to inflict that same force onto Andrew Luck. They crushed the quarterback from every angle, but he would not concede. Denver recorded 11 quarterback hits but just one sack, and the young leader willed his team over the Broncos, 27-24. Luck suffered a lacerated kidney as a result of the onslaught; the Broncos defense suffered a bruised ego.
How exactly did Luck hold up and what can they do the second time around?
“He put his whole body on the line, everything on the line, so we know that when he plays us, that is what he is going to do. It means a lot to him, so we kind of expect him to do the same thing,” Chris Harris Jr. said Monday. “Last year, we played a lot of zone versus him, a lot of zone blitzes and he had a good game verse that so I don’t see us playing too much of that again.”
Luck completed 21-of-36 attempts for 252 yards and two touchdowns. He added 34 rushing yards on six scrambles. The Broncos offense also did not do the defense any favors either. They turned the ball over twice and didn’t score a touchdown until the third quarter. That 64-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders and an Omar Bolden punt return touchdown kept the Broncos in the game, but Luck was the biggest factor that drove the Colts’ victory.
“I just know that every time you play him you have to bring it. He’s a stout guy. He’s hard to bring down and sack,” Derek Wolfe admitted Monday. “To be half-dead like he was and to be out there still playing says a lot about his toughness.”
Luck played through the severe injury, but the lacerated kidney sidelined him immediately following the game and for the remainder of the 2015 season. The Broncos defense, coming off of a similar physical game last Thursday, understands what it will take to reverse their fortunes of the last meeting.
“[Luck’s] a lot alike [Panthers’ QB Cam Newton], other than they do not run a lot of designed runs for him like Carolina does. He’s a big physical guy,” head coach Gary Kubiak said Monday. “He is hard to get down in the pocket if you don’t tackle him well. When you get there, he’s going to extend plays and those type of things. What did he throw for yesterday? 400 yards? He’s exceptional. We have our work cut out from that standpoint. He’s a lot like [Steelers QB Ben] Roethlisberger, a lot like playing that type of guy.”
Shane Ray missed last season’s game with a knee injury but has watched the young quarterback play and knows what it will take to get him down Sunday.
“You pull up some film of how many times somebody has brought Roethlisberger down by his legs. I mean come on,” Ray said when comparing Luck Monday. “Big Ben has like three people on his back when you try to bring him down so I’m going to do everything I can to bring down the Luck to the ground within the rules and if it gets extra physical, I’m okay with that. That’s how we play.”
What Ray and Wolfe find frustrating about Luck is how much he extends plays. Chris Harris Jr. seems to see the amount of pass plays called Sunday (47) in the Colts 34-39 loss to the Detroit Lions as a prime opportunity for turnovers.
“They threw the ball a lot,” Harris said confidently. “I think they threw the ball about 50 times, so I got a lot of chances to make plays, a lot of chances to get interceptions. As long as we can keep them one-dimensional and keep them having to throw the ball 40-50 times, we should have a great chance to win it.”
The Broncos are coming off of exhilarating 21-20 victory over the Panthers in which they pounded the biggest and most dynamic quarterback in the NFL. It also solidified the intensity in which the defense plays with each week. The last two losses to the Colts will surely add to the group’s preparation this week, and Luck will be at the center of their studies.
“He’s the kind of guy that will sit back there and beat you with his arm, but he can also beat you with his legs,” Wolfe said. “I think Andrew Luck is just one of those guys that can play really well inside or outside of the pocket.”
Wherever he is on the field, Wolfe made it clear that nothing will change how they approach any offense this season. If anything, they will bring more nastiness to the Colts than the batch that sidelined Luck in 2015.
“Offenses are gunning for us. Every offense we play wants to take us down, so we have to match that intensity,” he declared. “We are not going to let an offense come out and punk us.”
