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There are several ways to attack this Denver Broncos defense.
But a cheap shot is not one of them.
Harry Douglas found that out the hard way Sunday when he went low on Chris Harris Jr.’s knee for no reason other than to hurt him.
“That was so illegal,” said Harris Jr. after the game. “I have never had a player try to end my career like that. That was dirty, and he should be fined. That’s not football. He tried to take me out for the game and tried to end my career, that’s not football.”
Douglas continued to insist that it was football.
“First of all, that’s a clean play. It was a run play with me and him looking at each other, and I cut blocked him,” Douglas said. “Like I told them, if they watch film, which they’re supposed to do in the NFL, you would know I can cut block in the run game and that’s a legal play. I guess he didn’t watch film because if he watched me last week or any other game he would see that’s what I do in the run game.”
Apparently Douglas doesn’t know the difference between a legal play and a dirty play. A cut block is legal; aiming to take someone’s knee out is dirty.
You take a cheap shot against the Broncos and Aqib Talib will throw hands immediately pic.twitter.com/H7droz1Mf3
— Barstool Sports (@barstooltweetss) December 11, 2016
But the Broncos’ defense made sure to let Douglas know right away that’s not how professionals play football.
To no one’s surprise, the messenger was Aqib Talib, who took a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty for his retaliation. Talib and his teammates didn’t really consider it “unnecessary.”
“It was a dirty play by a sorry player,” Talib said in the locker room after the game. “He tried to do something dirty, so that's why I'm going to beat his ass."
After that dirty hit on @ChrisHarrisJr @AqibTalib21 has vowed to kick some ass. All I ask is that he let me cover the event. #broncos pic.twitter.com/2r6s88UrVa
— Brandon Perna (@BrandonPerna) December 11, 2016
Shane Ray didn’t blame Talib one bit.
“That isn’t right. So, the reaction that we had as a defense, we’re not wrong at all,” Ray said. “I would have done the same thing for one of my teammates, any other one of my teammates, and I’m sure they would have done the same for theirs if we would have done that to them. So, it is what it is.”
Harris Jr. definitely appreciated how his teammates responded. Not to mention that the defense played lights out the rest of the game, holding Marcus Mariota to six completions on the day.
“It means a lot. I know the whole team had my back. You just want to win. You want to get the ‘W’ out of it,” No. 25 said. “Us not getting the win, it hurts.”