The “No Fly Zone,” also known as the Denver Broncos secondary, had a bad day the last time they played Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts. It wasn’t their worst statistical game, but they were out of sorts.
As first downs and points piled up, and vicious hits failed to slow down quarterback Andrew Luck, the Broncos boiled over. The infamous Aqib Talib eye-poke was simply the icing on the cake of what turned out to be an embarrassing day for the Orange & Blue.
Don’t expect that this time around.
“Last year we played a lot of zone, a lot of zone blitzes and he [Luck] had a good game verse that so I don’t see us playing too much of that again,” cornerback Chris Harris Jr. said Monday. “We played too much zone. We were just out of wack. Everybody was out of wack. We had [Bradley] Roby playing my position, we were just matched up.”
In that Week 9 matchup, the Broncos played a mixture of zone and man and had the taller, more physical cornerback Aqib Talib cover the shifty wide receiver T.Y. Hilton almost exclusively. Harris and Roby played different roles than they were used to, moving around the field according to player personnel, as Harris alluded to. The moves seem to have contributed to Hilton’s early success and the Broncos rough start.
Luck and his talented group of weapons jumped out to a 17-0 lead in the second quarter with big gains by Hilton. At halftime, the receiver had already accumulated 75 of his eventual 82 receiving yards on just four catches. The defense also was penalized several times, seven of them resulted in Colts’ first downs.
Following the loss, there were grumblings about the decision to keep Talib on Hilton despite Harris’ infinity to better cover smaller, sometimes slot-type receivers.
Thursday, several Broncos secondary players stated that the shift in the game plan was somewhat unique and ultimately impacted the game’s final score. However, Harris knows, despite the Colts success last year, there is a simple solution to getting the Colts’ out of sync Sunday.
“We just have to be physical at the line, get our hands on them as much as possible and try to knock off their timing,” he said. “They’re very fast and very quick. That is what they have over Carolina receivers; they have way more speed, but we feel like we can run with them. We just have to play great technique and keep the long balls from happening.”
Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips seemed to take exception to Harris’ comments of last year’s Colts game plan and short of divulging their strategy; he responded when asked about it Thursday.
“I don’t take anything from that,” Phillips said plainly in regards to Harris’ comments. “We have a game plan. We play the things we think will be the best for us. Hopefully, we play zone and man really well and pressure people. We will try to do what we do. It worked out overall for us last year I thought.”
The Broncos went on to lead the league in pass defense and many other categories en route to the Super Bowl. They learned many things along the way. According to the “No Fly Zone,” one of those things is let them play their designated roles and success will follow. As for the rematch with Luck, Hilton, and company, Harris can’t wait.
“I love the challenge; I embrace it. If you look at our schedule, we play a top receiver every week, so I’m excited for it. It is something that you want. You want to play the best every week and T.Y. [Hilton], me and him have been going at it for I think five years now. It is going to be great competition.”
The Broncos have made many offenses’ look foolish in recent years; the Colts have not been one of them. Sunday, they are counting on that changing.
