Why We Can Beat the Colts

The immediate, knee jerk reaction across all of Broncos fandom after the loss to Jacksonville was pretty consistent – We don’t have a shot in hell to beat the Colts.

Well, I’m here to tell you that we do. Even more, the fan in me is going to tell you that we will.

It all has to do with matchups. The Broncos didn’t match up well against the Jaguars. They’ll have a much easier time against the Colts. And if we can finally stop Peyton from doing his thing in the second half, we’ll come away with a victory.

Year in and year out, the Broncos offensive line measures in as the lightest in the league. I haven’t seen anyone tally up the pounds for each team yet this season, but it wouldn’t surprise me one second if we measured in at 32 again. It allows our linemen to be more athletic in the zone blocking system, making them available to get to the second level and spread the front seven of defenses. All in hopes to open up running lanes.

A team like the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are simply huge at the point of attack, always have presented the Broncos with problems. Our smaller linemen can’t get the push they need against these beefy guys, and we all saw our running game struggle because of it.

The Colts, on the other hand, are infamous for having a smaller defense that uses speed rather than size. That plays right into the Broncos’ strength – our athletic linemen can get to the second level on these guys and hold their blocks.

Simply taking a look at the numbers puts this in perspective. The Jags were without John Henderson on Sunday, so we’ll omit his 335 lbs. The next three DTs’ average weight is 309 lbs.

The Colts have lost Booger McFarland for the season, so we omit him as well. Their main inside linemen measure in at 283 lbs., a full 26 pounds lighter, on average, than the Jaguars defensive tackles.

Can you say Travis Henry, anyone? I’m predicting this will be his biggest game as a Broncos thus far – he’s torched the Colts in the past, and he’s hungry to make up for the vomit-inducing performance last week. 200 plus yards. 2-3 touchdowns. He will ride the clock and the Broncos will keep the Colts off the field.

We’ll have to, because the Colts can run the bell as well as they do everything else. We have the league’s #1 pass defense, and theoretically Champ and Dre could shut down Reggie and Marvin, with a little safety help. But we’ll need to outrun the Colts, win the time of possession battle, and shut down Joseph Addai to some extend to come away victorious.

Can we? Yes. Will we? That’s why they play the game.