Lil’ Phily Rivers threw up his hands in disgust to call timeout, and then kicked the turf in such a child-like manner it looked like mommy needed to put him in timeout.
Instantly, the Broncos’ Robert Ayers mocked the quarterback, imitating the kick, followed by a faux waddle toward the sideline.
“I found it funny that he was crying and whining,” Ayers said, “so I just took the opportunity to tease him.”
The Broncos defense believed. And the Broncos defense, swarming with swagger, overwhelmed the Chargers for most of the playoff victory Sunday.
Confident? Nah, this was cocky.
Sure, San Diego came in here a month ago and instigated a stampede upon these guys. And sure, many of Denver starters on defense aren’t even starters, instead backups thrust into new roles due to injuries and underachievement. But give defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio a game ball for cooking up schemes for sacks and savagery.
I mean, for three quarters, it was 1977 all over again.
At that point, San Diego didn’t have any points. The Chargers had tallied just 44 passing yards, 54 yards on the ground and five first downs. It took an injury to cornerback Chris Harris, who nabbed the starting job from a then-injured Champ Bailey, for Rivers to finally find himself, throwing to rookie Keenan Allen to pick on the aging cornerback Quentin Jammer.
I’ve always contended that as long as Denver’s defense just hung in a game, Denver could win the AFC due to its offense. Well, in the biggest game of the season, the defense changed the game.
They went after Rivers early, preventing him from puncturing the defense with short zips. Denver sacked Rivers twice on the first drive, and the Chargers realized they couldn’t come to Denver and take their time chewing up first dows and eating up the clock like it was smothered in tasty green chili.
Denver finished with four sacks on Rivers, who a few times demonstrated his anger with flailing and flapping arms.
“First I have to say he’s a great quarterback — but yes, it’s pretty funny when a grown man is throwing a temper tantrum,” said Denver defensive tackle Malik Jackson. “That’s good to see that we’re out there frustrating him enough that he’s thrown off his game.
“In these last two games, me and Philip had some words said to each other. Nothing crazy, just a strong professional dislike for each other. The sacks felt great, to actually talk to him when he was on his back, to hear what he had to say (at that moment). It was a good feeling. … We’ve got a chip on our shoulder, and we’re going to take it out on people.”
The chip is understandable. When you think of the 2013 Broncos, you think of offense. America thinks of offense. Understandably so, for this might be the best offense in the history of offense. But in the past three games now, Denver has allowed fewer than 20 points in each game.
What happened?
“We woke up – we were asleep before,” safety Mike Adams said with a smirk. “We came together and realized – in the playoffs, you’ve got to have good defense. If you don’t play good defense, you won’t get too far. And we didn’t want to put everything on Peyton Manning’s shoulders. Our defensive guys, we have pride, so we wanted to do our job and make it easier for him.”
New England is coming to town next weekend. And even though Denver has a bunch of no-names on defense, this is a better group than blew the game in Foxboro in November.
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com, www.twitter.com/hochman
