Sometimes you win with less
Coming into the game, I was extremely curious as to how Wade Phillips would attack Tom Brady and his beat-up offensive line. Denver needed to get to Brady, and they needed to get to him fast; give him time to throw, and he will eat you alive.
But just how would Denver go about getting to Brady? Would Phillips unleash the blitz, hitting Brady from all directions and forcing him to make an immediate decision? Or would he rush four, allowing the rest of the defense to stay back in coverage, and hope his superstar pass rushers could get to Brady without help?
Both options made sense, but Phillips made the ballsy decision by going with the latter, and it worked to perfection.
Not only did Phillips limit his blitzes, but he almost cut them out entirely, blitzing a season-low 17.2 percent of the time. In fact, there were multiple occasions where the Broncos only brought three pass rushers, and they still generated pressure.
Wade Phillips took the gamble that his superstar pass rushers, Von Miller (8.5) and DeMarcus Ware (8.0), could wreck havoc all alone, and they absolutely did, combining for three sacks and 15 more quarterback pressures; Derek Wolfe (5.8), who has been playing outstanding of late, also added a sack and seven more pressures.
As a unit, the Denver Broncos were able to get to Brady 23 times on the day, the most by any defensive unit all season, which is, again, made all the more impressive by the fact that they hardly ever brought more than four pass rushers.
On 39 passes with a 4-man rush, Denver had two sacks, 12 QB hits, and five hurries.
Created pressure on 48.7% of those dropbacks.
— PFF (@PFF) January 25, 2016
It’ll take a much different gameplan to take down Cam Newton in two weeks, but in the case of Tom Brady, Wade Phillips aced the test.
