The defense has shown enough to get a pass
Listen, if we’re all fine with giving Peyton Manning a pass for six sub-par performances to start the season, then I think we owe the defense at least one. I mean, they may have lost the Broncos this game, but they also single-handedly won the team’s first six.
This is still a FANTASTIC defense. That hasn’t changed.
Just because the Broncos gave up 27 points to Andrew Luck and the Colts doesn’t mean the defense transformed into an average unit over night. In fact every single all-time great defense has done the same: The ’85 Bears gave up 28 to the Buccaneers and 38 to the Dolphins; the ’00 Ravens gave up 36 to the Jaguars; and the ’13 Seahawks gave up 34 to the Colts.
Sure, maybe we hyped the Broncos defense up a little too much; they’re not perfect. Like every other great unit that came before them, the 11 guys who line up on that field are human, and that means they’re bound to make mistakes.
I can’t predict that the Broncos defense won’t have another performance like the one they had against the Colts, but I think it would be entirely unfair to act as if that’s the type of performance we should expect going forward. Wade Phillips’ squad played seven of the best games we’ve ever seen, and they followed it up with a dud. Until proven otherwise, I’m going to treat that one dud as the aberration.
