The Broncos defense, once again, stepped up and sealed a victory against the Colts. The strip sack by Von Miller and fumble recovery for a touchdown by Shane Ray made it a two-possession game with just over a minute and 30 seconds left. The game was much closer then the score shows.
Broncos safety, T.J. Ward, said postgame it reminded him of the kinds of dramatic defensive wins Denver pulled out so many times last year.
“That’s what happens when you’re the caliber of defense we are,” Ward told Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro of Afternoon Drive on AM 1340 | FM 104.7. “You have to get to that caliber of defense by making plays that we had been last year and continue to make this year. We work on it, we thrive on it, we look for it and a lot of times it happens to come to us.”
The Broncos set out to accomplish only one goal every week: To win the game. It doesn’t matter how close it is, as long as they add to their win total.
“It’s exactly like last year, it seems like,” Ward said. “Tight games all last year. It was a dog fight every game and some how we pull it out at the end. We were talking on the sidelines, ‘Man, I’m tired of winning dogfights’. But are you tired of winning? Nope. If it’s a dogfight, it’s a dogfight. As long as we win.”
Before the fumble recovery for the touchdown late in the fourth quarter, Gary Kubiak made a decision to settle for a field goal to go up six with just under two minutes remaining. Ward and the defense enjoys that sense of confidence their coach has with them.
“That just shows his confidence in us, in what we do and what we’ve been doing all day,” Ward said. “Especially with no time outs left. The odds were heavily stacked against the Colts.”
This Broncos defense has given the top, elite quarterbacks a lot of trouble over the last couple of seasons, including Tom Brady and Cam Newton. Andrew Luck was no exception on Sunday.
“We felt like we owed Andrew Luck,” Ward said. “He beat us the last two times we’ve played them. This game meant a lot for us to get back at the whole entire Colts team. We made a lot of mistakes today but we got through for the win.”
To listen to the whole interview with TJ Ward, click the podcast below…
https://soundcloud.com/milehighsports/9-19-16-ad-catches-up-with-tj-ward-who-steals-something-from-the-raiders-just-win-baby
Catch Afternoon Drive with Goodman and Shapiro Monday-Friday from 4p-6p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.