During the NFL preseason, there’s an unspoken truce between teams: Don’t murder my quarterback.
It’s a difficult rule to live by, especially for defensive coordinators, but the last thing any organization wants is for their quarterback to be sprawled on the ground, clutching his knee in agony; the easiest way to do that is to play nice with the opposing team’s passer, hoping they do the same.
The NFL’s version of nuclear deterrence.
But when one team doesn’t play nice, people get angry. Just ask Jim Irsay, who opted to sit Andrew Luck against the Buffalo Bills and the always-aggressive Rex Ryan defense.
Colts Fans; it's a long Pre-Season and 2 Home Games are coming in the next 2 Weeks..Look for #12 to make 1st Start then instead of tonight.
— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) August 13, 2016
…. Yes,there is some truth on this dark,rainy night; that my good friend Rex…has never heard of the word…. PRESEASON😄!!!
— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) August 13, 2016
The Colts have a right to be worried, but as Ryan said after the game, just because a defense gets to the quarterback doesn’t mean they blitzed.
“Take a look at the tapes, and see how many times we blitzed,” Ryan said, via ESPN.
A similar sentiment was projected towards Wade Phillips and the Denver Broncos defense, as they demolished Jay Cutler and the rest of the Bears quarterbacks to the tune of seven sacks and zero points allowed.
With two of those sacks coming at the hands of a safety, the immediate reaction was that Phillips had broken the unspoken truce by blitzing the Chicago Bears in the preseason.
Like Ryan, Phillips disagreed.
5 sacks were 4 man rush -2 sacks were 5 man rush–
0 sacks were blitzes— Wade Phillips (@sonofbum) August 13, 2016
And when questioned further, he clarified.
we did not blitz is the point
— Wade Phillips (@sonofbum) August 13, 2016
And that’s part of the issue with playing armchair quarterback: The moment we see a member of the secondary in the backfield, we assume it was a blitz, even if the defense was only rushing four or five guys.
Phillips, though, says the ignorance doesn’t stop with the fans, and apparently he’s felt this way for awhile, as he retweeted a tweet he posted back in January.
Funny how 'experts' don't know a blitz(6rush-5cover eligible receivers)from a dog(5rush-6cover)–there are also pseudo blitz & dog schemes
— Wade Phillips (@sonofbum) January 26, 2016
When the time comes, Phillips will unleash the blitz, but the thing is that the Broncos hardly need to blitz to be effective in the pass rush. That’s the benefit that comes with having guys like Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware on your defense.
If opponents want Phillips to take it any easier, he might have to don a helmet and go take care of business himself.