Foxborough, Mass. – With a single curse, yelled in frustration and caught by television cameras for the entire nation to witness, New England quarterback Tom Brady put an exclamation point on how wicked tough this Denver defense can be.
Pick a fight with these Broncos at your own risk. They will mess you up.
“I want this defense to get in people’s heads. I want it to mess with their heads. I want them to think: ‘We don’t stand a chance to score against the Broncos.’ I want teams just hoping to get out of here alive,” Denver defensive tackle Gerard Warren said Sunday.
The Broncos wiped the poise off Brady’s handsome face with a 17-7 beat-down so humiliating it caused the NFL’s golden boy to scream a word his mother never taught him.
Even total domination did not satisfy the Broncos.
“To be honest with you,” Warren said, “I thought we were capable of shutting them out.”
In the process of dismantling the Patriots, Denver became the first team in 64 years to open a season without allowing a touchdown for 11 consecutive quarters.
Forget the Baltimore Ravens of Ray Lewis or those Super Bowl shufflin’ Chicago Bears of the mid-1980s. You have to go all the way back to 1942 and the Chicago Cardinals to find a defense that made an intimidating name so fast for itself as these Broncos.
You remember 1942, don’t you? Play it again, Sam.
Humphrey Bogart made Rick’s Cafe the coolest joint in all the world in “Casablanca.” The greatest thing that ever happened to boxing was born with the name Cassius Clay. The war in the Pacific began to turn at the Battle of Midway.
Are you kidding me? 1942?
“That’s a long time, brother,” Warren said. “You know what? My mother wasn’t even born in ’42.”
Brady is the poster boy for everything that’s good and wholesome about pro football. But he cannot deal with Denver, which has now beaten Mr. Perfect five times out of six during his NFL career.
The Broncos ripped the Patriots to shreds. And it tore the league’s archetype quarterback apart, causing him to crack and scream in frustration while standing helplessly on the sideline during the second half.
After the victory, Shanahan was so humble when asked to explain how the Broncos rattled Brady that you would have thought Denver’s coach was accepting some kind of humanitarian award. How did Shanahan shut down the Pats?
“Even if I did have the answer, I certainly wouldn’t share it,” Shanahan said.
The coach is never mistaken for Cedric the Entertainer, but Shanahan was certainly in good humor after forcing Brady to throw 55 times to earn his 320 passing yards that bought the Pats only one trip to the end zone.
On the eve of the game, meeting in private with his team, Shanahan was not nearly so modest. According to Denver safety John Lynch, the coach told the Broncos they would shut down New England’s running game, reduce the Patriots’ offense to one dimension and dare Brady to beat them.
That’s bold to the point of brash.
But this defense has become that bodaciously bad to the bone.
Lynch can take hits as well as he delivers big blows. He hears constant kidding about being the old man of the Denver defense.
Running a hand through his thinning hair, Lynch looked up at a clock on the wall in the visiting locker room at Gillette Stadium. He grinned.
The time was five minutes past midnight in New England.
“I just turned 35 about five minutes ago. So I am old,” said Lynch, laughing.
I started to repeat the amazing statistic of the night to Lynch: “No NFL team had began the season without allowing a touchdown for 11 straight quarters …”
“Since 1942,” interrupted Lynch, laughing again. “I wasn’t even born then. When you start hearing stuff like that, it opens your eyes. Shoot, ’72 would be good. But when you’re talking ’42? That really opens your eyes.”
Throughout the NFL, eyes are on Denver’s tenacious D. Eyes wide open. With fear.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
