Our friends over at @MileHighReport on Twitter brought up a good question, wondering what the Broncos’ plans were against the no huddle. Denver has struggled against the no-huddle offense at times this year, looking confused last week when Kansas City ran it early in the game, and the Colts are sure to use the no huddle this week. Indianapolis is perhaps the best team in the league at running the hurry-up offense, because quarterback Peyton Manning has a great sense of when to speed things up.
Broncos coach Josh McDaniels had a pretty blunt response when asked about defending Indianapolis’ no-huddle offense, basically conceding that Denver won’t be able to freely substitute because of the threat.
“We’re not going to try to run a bunch of guys in and out the game,” McDaniels said. “Nobody does against this team and we’re not going to try to do it either.”
One of the reasons teams have hurried up against the Broncos is to stop their substitutions. The Broncos rotate defensive linemen, and on passing situations bring in linebackers Wesley Woodyard and Robert Ayers and cornerback Ty Law. When McDaniels was asked how it would affect the defense if it can’t substitute often, he again said it wasn’t a viable option.
“We will not try to do something that’s impossible to do, and that’s impossible to do,” McDaniels said. “If you don’t have the right time – if the ball hasn’t been thrown downfield 40 yards, if there’s not a timeout on the field – you don’t try to do that and disrupt the entire flow of your game by allowing (Manning) to create situations where you have to call timeouts or get 5-yard penalties that keep drives going. We’re going to play with the guys that are out there and when we feel like we can substitute without issue, then we’ll substitute if we need to.”
Reader Comments
Comments are encouraged, but you must follow our User Agreement.