The Denver Broncos came back from a 21-7 deficit to beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-28. Broncos receivers Eric Decker and Demaryius Thomas combined to catch most of his throws, with Decker snagging four of Broncos QB Peyton Manning’s five touchdown passes. Manning threw for 405 yards and Decker caught eight for 174 and four TDs. Thomas had three for 106 yards including an amazing 77-yard catch and run. Knowshon Moreno grabbed Manning’s other TD pass.
Why was Manning able to do that against the Kansas City Chiefs but not the New England Patriots?
The biggest difference between the Sunday game of yesterday and the Sunday Night Football game of two weeks ago wasn’t that the Broncos came back from being down early. No. It was that the KC Chiefs didn’t use the Pats Defensive Playbook.
As I pointed out in this video…
The Denver Broncos lost to the New England Patriots in part because the Pats played a lot of hard press coverage in the 2nd half. Remember, the Broncos had, at one point, a 24-0 lead on New England, and were kicking their tails. What the Patriots did was simply press the Broncos wide receivers and did so with such violence that it’s an example of bad officiating that they weren’t flagged more. That, and a lucky bounce in overtime, was what gave the Pats the game.
By contrast, the Kansas City Chiefs forgot about the bump and run and, while they were close on the Broncos receivers, playing man-for-man, they consistently gave them a free release off the line of scrimmage. The Broncos weren’t hip to this until later in the 2nd quarter; by the 3rd quarter, their revised game plan was set.
As long as the Denver Broncos’ receivers, particularly Eric Decker and Denarius Thomas, are allowed to run free, that offense – a wonderful combination of the spread, play action Manning used at Indy, Pistol Offense and Urban Myer Spread concepts, no-huddle, and power running – will continue to put up big numbers, as was the case Sunday.
Stay tuned.
Zennie Abraham | Zennie Abraham or “Zennie62” is the founder of Zennie62Media which consists of zennie62blog.com and a multimedia blog news aggregator and video network, and 78-blog network, with social media and content development services and consulting. Zennie is a pioneer video blogger, YouTube Partner, social media practitioner, game developer, and pundit. Note: news aggregator content does not reflect the personal views of Mr. Abraham.