ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Blitz. Blitz. It’s the Fangio Blitz.
From nowhere, or at least his distant past, Vic Fangio has decided to operate like Buddy Ryan and bring the inside linebackers, bring the safeties, but by any means – and sometime by all means as he did for the final play against New England -- bring an extra pass rusher.
Considered one of the league’s best defensive coordinators for years but also one who didn’t like to blitz, Fangio, who is both the Broncos’ head coach and defensive play caller, has broken form in the past two games.
In his last two games, both wins, Fangio has blitzed on 29.3 percent of his defensive snaps, 5th-most in the league, according to Sportradar. That’s up from blitzing 19.0 percent of the time through the first three games, all Broncos losses, which was 29th-most in the league.
“Unbeknownst to you and to everybody else, at one time I was the leading blitzkrieger in the NFL,’’ Fangio said after the Broncos upset 18-12 victory Sunday at New England. “I’ve been calling defenses now for 20-something years but the last few years with the defenses that I had in San Francisco and Chicago we didn’t need to, but it’s there when it needs to be had and obviously it was there today.’’
Last year, Fangio’s first with the Broncos, his defense ranked 24th in blitz percentage. Who says an old coach can’t change his ways?
The reason for the uptick in blitzing is the Broncos weren’t pressuring the quarterback when they were bringing the usual four pass rushers. Denver had just four sacks through its first three games. But in the last two games, with Fangio bringing extra attackers, the Broncos had 10 sacks.
And the blitzing didn’t start until after the first quarter against the New York Jets as their quarterback, Sam Darnold, had his way early in that game.
The blitzes have freed up the usual pass rushers. Outside linebacker Bradley Chubb had 0 sacks through three games, 3.5 in his last two. Malik Reed is coming off a 2-sack game against Cam Newton. Even part-timer Anthony Chickillo got his first full sack in two years on Sunday when he dropped Newton.
“I’ve come to find that Vic has such a good grasp of the game that nine times out of ten when he makes a call it always feels like it’s the right call at the right time,’’ said Broncos safety Justin Simmons. “I think he found the rhythm of the game and called more blitzes and we found it to be effective. Sometimes speeding up the quarterback is a thing in and of itself where it gets them out of the rhythm of finding their receivers in the passing game.’’
Ah, but beware blitzing the next opponent, Patrick Mahomes and the Andy Reid-coached Kansas City Chiefs. The Broncos are 0-5 against Mahomes, who is the league’s best quarterback for going on three years. And they haven’t beaten the Chiefs, period, since week 2 of the Broncos’ Super Bowl 50 season in 2015 – a string of 9 consecutive losses to Kansas City.
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