Here’s the deal for the Broncos on Sunday: The Colts don’t need the ball much to score, so the more the Broncos give Indianapolis and its uber-quarterback Peyton Manning the ball, the more trouble Denver’s defense will have.
The numbers are ugly this season, the kind that make defensive coordinators around the league reach for the Pepto-Bismol as they roll the video.
Consider the Colts have run 748 plays on offense this year, which puts them at a rather pedestrian 23rd in the league. That means the Chiefs (3-9), the Rams (1-11) and Lions (2-10) are among those teams that have run more plays on offense than the Colts have thus far this season.
But the Colts are also fourth in the league in scoring at 27.6 points per game, and those other teams are not. The Colts have scored a touchdown for every 17.5 plays they have run this season — by contrast, the Broncos have scored a touchdown for every 30 plays they have run this season.
Colts’ drives end in touchdowns, and they don’t take long to put the ball in the end zone.
The only team with similar numbers is the Chargers, who are averaging 28.5 points per game — No. 3 in the league — and have run 716 plays on offense.
Those 716 plays put the Chargers at 29th in the league in that category, and the Broncos certainly had plenty of trouble with that offense already this season.
But for the Broncos to simply invite trouble and continually hand the ball back to an Indianapolis offense that obviously knows how to finish drives would not be a wise thing to do. Especially if the Denver drives that do end in a punt fail to use a little of the clock along the way.
The Colts can wrestle control of a game away in a three-minute span of any quarter and often don’t need that much time to turn things their way.
It takes precision to beat them, but it also takes patience, because while Manning consistently waits for his chance, an opposing offense can’t be in too big of a hurry to give him more than he needs.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
