They always say the bye week is wonderful. The rest was needed. The legs are fresh. The energy is revitalized.
So how come every year, for the past nine years, at least one of the NFL’s top four teams coming off a first-week bye loses its second-round home playoff game?
Because a team coming off a bye can be flat the next week, that’s why. The two most demoralizing defeats in Broncos history occurred the week after they enjoyed a first-week bye: against Jacksonville in the second round of the 1996 playoffs and Baltimore in the second round of the 2012 season.
Broncos coach John Fox has been on both ends of the bye-week blues. His 2003 Carolina Panthers upset the rested St. Louis Rams in the NFC’s second round and again in 2005 against the Chicago Bears.
But Fox’s No. 2-seeded Panthers lost to Arizona in the second round of 2008 and his Broncos suffered that excruciating overtime defeat to the Baltimore Ravens in 2012.
Fox knows what the week after a bye can look like. And he was encouraged by what he saw from his Broncos during Monday’s practice that began this week’s preparation for their second-round playoff game Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.
“We looked good,” Fox said. “I like this team. I liked the way they went about their business over the bye. I liked what I saw yesterday in our lift and today in our workout.”
Said Broncos defensive tackle Terrance Knighton: “We won’t be rusty. We practiced three days before we took three days off. We came back an extra day ahead of time, got a good lift in yesterday, got an extra practice in today. So being rusty won’t be a problem. I’m not worried about that.”
