Bronco Gamble Backfires

Teams that don't play in Indianapolis have spent most of the last decade trying to figure out how to stop Peyton Manning. Early on he would force the ball on occasion, which led to a fair number of interceptions but since 2003 you couldn't count on that. Manning matured, takes what the defense gives him and is content to win even if he doesn't put up eye-popping numbers. Those endorsement checks get cashed whether he throws for 400 yards or 200, after all.

One thing he's never done is take a lot of sacks. He recognizes defenses too well for that. So it's odd that the Broncos pinned their entire defensive hopes on sacking Manning yesterday. They deactivated oversized defensive tackles Sam Adams and Amon Gordon and replaced them in the middle of the defensive line with defensive ends Jarvis Moss and Tim Crowder. Having spent the first three weeks getting overrun like the French army at the on the Western Front of WWI, the Broncos decided to play French army in World War II and offer no resistance whatsoever.

The scheme did confuse the Colts at the outset.

"A guy like (rookie left tackle Tony) Ugoh has never seen that (type of defensive front) before," Manning said. "But that's where sideline adjustments pay off. You talk about what it is and you adjust to it. And we certainly got some run game looks at it once we figured out where No. 94 was going to be."

They certainly did. Joseph Addai and Kenton Keith averaged more than seven yards a carry en route to 216 total yards on the ground. And the quartet of pass rushers didn't sack Manning once and disrupted him so much that he threw three touchdowns. It's time for the Broncos to go back to the drawing board to fix their woeful defense.