The Denver Broncos defense is stacked with playmakers. Already this season Denver has notched multiple AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors and a Player of the Month award as well. The individual and group talent John Elway has assembled on that side of the ball has through seven games put the Broncos atop many key statistical categories in the league, including sacks, yards per game and the all-important points per game.
But don’t give any of the credit to individual players, says one of the stalwarts on Denver’s defensive line. Malik Jackson, who is on pace to have a career year in sacks and tackles, says the credit for this defense’s performance goes first to defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.
Jackson joined Sports Stampede on Mile High Sports AM 1340 earlier this week and said the Broncos’ dominant defensive performance, like the one against Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, is a result of the unit executing Phillips’ game plan.
Those individual accolades wouldn’t be possible without everyone doing their job as Phillips draws it up. Getting the offense clicking, finally, is helping as well.
“The offense holding the ball – getting the running game going – Peyton [Manning], Demaryius [Thomas] and Emmanuel [Sanders] getting on the same page,” says Jackson, was a big part of keeping Green Bay off the board.
Sure, Denver is stacked with individual talent on defense, but the players aren’t getting hung up on individual accolades. That bodes well as they hit the midway point of the season with games against Indianapolis (Sunday), New England (Nov. 29), Pittsburgh (Dec. 20) and Bengals (Dec. 28) still on the schedule.
Listen to the full interview with Jackson, including some Nuggets talk from the Sports Stampede, in the podcast below.
Catch Sports Stampede every Saturday from 8a-10a on Mile High Sports AM 1340 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of what’s new and what’s next in Colorado sports.
