Broncos Week 8 Game Ball - Defense

In a game where the Denver Broncos Defense needed to step up, they did, with a sound trouncing of the No. 1 Passing Offense in the NFL. Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints didn’t know what hit them, but Bronco fans do. It was eleven guys in bright Orange jerseys.

The Denver Defense limited the Saints to two 1st downs on the ground and effectively shut down the Run game by allowing a stingy 51 yards. The Saints could only muster 252 yards total, or 4,2 yards per play. New Orleans was 1-12 (8.3%) on their 3rd Down conversions and that basically tells the story right there.

So let’s get to the hardware.


The Game Ball on Defense goes to Linebacker Wesley Woodyard, who seemed to be everywhere on Sunday. Wes played all 62 snaps and graded out 2nd overall next to the dominating Von Miller and 1st in Pass coverage for the game. He finished with 13 Total Tackles, 1 Tackle For a Loss, 1 Sack, 2 Pass Break Ups, 1 Interception and 1 Forced Fumble.

Woodyard became the 3rd player in the NFL this season (Ray Lewis and Jerrell Freeman) to get a Linebacker Hat Trick. They all got at least 13 Tackles, one Sack and one Forced Fumble in the same game.

Also, there are only 3 other players in the League with multiple Interceptions and multiple Sacks and two of them wear Bronco uniforms. Woodyard (3 Sks, 2 INT) and Chris Harris (1.5 Sks, 2 INT) share that distinction with Browns LB D’Qwell Jackson (3 Sks, 2 INT) as the only players to do that in 2012.

Typifying the humility of his Mentor Brian Dawkins,

"I still have to get a lot better," Woodyard said Monday. "But that's one game that I'll definitely be able to look back on and say I made a lot of plays. Thanks to my teammates, I was flying around."

I doubt very few would argue the point of awarding the Defensive Game Ball to Wesley Woodyard, but their should be a few Horseshoes tossed in here too. However, I must apologize for my brevity. I lost my favorite uncle this morning and my day has been a mess.

Go Broncos!

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