DeMarcus, where?
The defensive end disappeared and disappointed for much of the second half of the Broncos’ season. DeMarcus Ware, I declare, must make an impact on Sunday’s playoff game against the Colts, because quarterback Andrew Luck is just too overwhelming when he’s not pressured. Shoot, Luck can be overwhelming even when he is pressured, as we saw against the Bengals.
“I would say, consistently in my first half, I made a lot more plays,” Ware said Monday. “But the thing is, now it’s time to turn it up a lot more, and be a little more consistent in the playoffs. It’s like — what have you done for me lately? You can look at yourself and be your worst critic. You go back to the fundamentals of what you do best.
“This is a new season.”
Let’s hope. In the past six games, Ware had just one sack. In each of the final four games, Ware graded out , compared with just one negative grade in the first eight games.
Remember when? In the first half of the season, Ware’s play was more fitting for The Weather Channel than for ESPN; tornadic. A Denver zephyr. Including three sacks of slippery San Francisco signal caller Colin Kaepernick, Ware totaled eight sacks in the first eight games. He and Von Miller were just the eighth teammates since 1982 to both have eight after eight.
Alas, molasses. Ware got just two sacks in the second half of the season to finish with 10, the same number Shaun Phillips had last season for Denver.
The optimist says Ware’s body should be fresh after he played just 42.6 percent of the defense’s snaps in the regular-season finale against Oakland, followed by a bye week. And, he had 1½ sacks in the season opener against Luck and the Colts. The pessimist looks at his history and sees repetition. Last season, with Dallas, he had only one sack in the final six games. In 2012 — just 1½. Is DeMarcus Ware, a potential first-ballot Hall of Famer, really football’s version of “Mr. May?” (I suppose that would make him football’s “Mr. October.”)
Asked what he hopes to see out of Ware come Sunday, defensive tackle Terrance Knighton said, “I know what I’m going to get — I don’t hope. He’s going to come 100 percent, he’ll have a lot of quarterback pressures. He’s been, I think, having one of his better years against the run. I also don’t expect him to come out (of the game) at all during the postseason. During the regular season, there were a lot of times when he came out, but in the playoffs, the better players stay on the field and never come out.”
This, of course, is bad news for Quanterus Smith fans.
Will it be bad news for Colts fans?
I’ve been a vociferous supporter of the Denver defense, and I believe the defense will be a key reason the Broncos win Sunday. But DeMarcus must show up big. This is why he came to Denver in the first place, for playoff games. Really, it doesn’t matter how he did in the first eight games or even in the second eight games. What matters is how he prepared himself to play in January games, in hopes of playing a February game in Arizona, the Super Bowl.
“I think the mentality is — seriousness,” Ware said. “It’s business; there’s no room for error, no room for play. I think you have to turn up or be turned out. That’s the mentality this week. It’s a whole other level now.”
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or
Beware?
Denver defensive end DeMarcus Ware started strong this season but was quiet in the second half:
First eight games: Eight sacks, 19 combined tackles.
Second eight games: Two sacks, 21 combined tackles (but seven came in one game, at St. Louis).
