INDIANAPOLIS — Von Miller executed his stunt beautifully.
His crafty move from left end to down the middle left the Broncos’ star player with a clear path to the quarterback.
The Broncos’ perennial Pro Bowl and eventual Hall of Fame pass rusher, Miller used his remarkable speed and quickness to close in on the passer, Indianapolis’ Jacoby Brissett, who was having a tough day.
The Broncos were leading, 13-12, here Sunday before an announced crowd of 61,653 at roof-opened Lucas Oil Stadium. There was 1:48 left in the game and Miller had Brissett in his arms somewhere between the Colts’ own 1-yard line and the goal line.
As Broncos head coach Vic Fangio put it later, "Von had him dead to rights."
The favored Colts were out of timeouts. Sack Brissett and the game is over. Oh-ver. Brissett at that point was just 13 of 23 for 162 yards and had fumbled the ball away early in the quarter.
Miller grabbed Brissett and was throwing him to the ground. But Brissett is 6-foot-4, 231 pounds -- big, thick and strong by quarterback standards.
One other problem: A closer look at the videotape revealed Miller grabbed Brissett's hand warmer. The hand warmer fell to the ground as Brissett got away. What a terrible break.
Brissett pulled a Houdini and used Miller’s toss to swing right. Brissett scrambled and instead of hurrying a dump off, he threw it 35 yards downfield.
Chris Harris Jr., the Broncos’ best cornerback, had done a marvelous job Colts’ star receiver T.Y. Hilton most of the day. Hilton had just one catch for 19 yards until this play.
Brissett threw a perfect bullet to Hilton, who caught it, and dragged two feet inbounds for the 35-yard pickup. The Colts were out to near midfield. On the next play, Broncos’ linebacker Alexander Johnson was called for a 15-yard horse collar penalty.
A few plays later, Adam Vinatieri, a 46-year-old kicker who missed two kicks in the game, nailed a 52-yard field goal with 22 seconds remaining.
The Broncos lost 15-13. They lost for a third time on a field goal in the final seconds. The losses to the Bears and Jaguars were final-kick walkoffs. This one might as well have been for all the good the Broncos’ offense did with their final two plays.
Unfair as this may be to Miller and Harris, the Broncos’ two best players who both otherwise had good games against the Colts, there is now a signature play that encapsulates the Broncos’ sorry season.
'Yeah. I thought I had him," Miller said softly at his locker. "It’s tough. You think about that play, you’re just sick, you know? Wish I could have … it’s worse when you feel like you could have done a little bit more for your teammates. This is going to hurt for a little bit."
Bad teams find a way to lose. The Broncos are 2-6 with three losses in heartbreaking fashion.
“That’s a great play by their quarterback, avoiding Von there when Von had him dead to rights,'' Fangio said. "And then we got the penalty there on the sideline and then it’s just try to get a few more yards with the field goal.’’
Good teams find a way to win. The Colts hardly played their best game – old man Vinatieri and kid cornerback Rock Ya-Sin nearly cost them – but the Brissett-to-Hilton play lifted their record to a surprising 5-2.
“I was in zero with T.Y.,'' said Harris, meaning he had man coverage with zero safeties back as protection. "He ran a deep post, I took him all the way deep and then he came all the way back. I tried to cover him as long as I could. I was in zero so I felt like I shut him down other than that b.s. right there.”
Most disturbing was the Broncos’ coaching staff played the game as if it was afraid. At least that’s how it looked on offense and that's what irked quarterback Joe Flacco.
"I just look at it like, we are now a 2-6 football team and we’re like afraid to go for it in a two-minute drill (at the end of the first half)," Flacco said. "Like, who cares if you give the ball back to the guys with a minute and 40 seconds left? They obviously got the field goal anyway. Once again, we’re a 2-6 football team and it just feels like we’re kind of afraid to lose a game."
Another example was the 2-minute warning in the fourth quarter. The Broncos were at the Colts’ 43, third and 5. What did offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello call? A play to punt. Phillip Lindsay up the gut. The Broncos punted and Brissett followed with his remarkable escape and throw.
"It’s third-and-five at the end of the game, who cares if they have a timeout there at the end or not," Flacco said. "Getting in field goal range isn’t that tough. So you’re just putting your defense in these bad situations. I just felt like, what do we have to lose? Why can’t we be aggressive in some of these situations? That’s kind of how I feel about a lot of the game today."
Lindsay agreed.
"Our defense shouldn’t have been out there (for the final drive)," he said. "We should have been able to get 5 yards and run the clock out. We’re asking a lot of them. We need to do better. Joe’s right. We’ve got to be more aggressive. When that’s coming from the quarterback, it’s saying something."
The Broncos picked on Ya-Sin, the Colts' rookie cornerback whom Indianapolis selected with the No. 34 overall pick the second round -- just ahead of where the Broncos took left guard Dalton Risner and quarterback Drew Lock back-to-back with picks No. 40 and 41 picks. Ya-Sin committed five coverage penalties -- three defensive holding penalties in the first half and two pass interference penalties in the second half to aid Denver drives.
In the first half, the Broncos didn't get enough out of remarkable ball control. After marching on an offensive series longer than any they had since the first game of their Super Bowl 50 season, the Broncos’ drive was halted at the 3-yard line.
The Broncos ran 17 plays, and had benefit of two defensive penalties, and couldn’t get the ball in the end zone.
After 17 plays that took up 7 minutes, 45 seconds of play clock, after two defensive penalties, the Broncos wound up with a 21-yard Brandon McManus field goal early in the second quarter.
At least the Broncos’ offense helped the Denver defense by staying on the field so long. The Colts’ offense can’t score if it doesn’t have the ball.
The field goal gave the Broncos a 3-0 lead against the Colts, who were 4-2 and listed as 5-point favorites, and another long drive later in the second quarter resulted in another short McManus field goal. The Broncos led, 6-3 at the half.
It was the Broncos’ longest drive in terms of plays since their 2015 opener against the Joe Flacco Baltimore Ravens.
Flacco is the Broncos’ quarterback now and he once again played well between the 20s, completing 20 of 31 for 174 yards.
Another Broncos’ drive later in the second quarter lasted 13 plays, plus one more defensive penalty, and ate up 5 minutes, 38 seconds to set up another short McManus’ field goal.
To sum up those two drives combined: 30 plays, 159 yards, 13:23 and only 6 points.
PHOTOS | Denver Broncos at Indianapolis Colts
“You always want 7,'' said Broncos center Connor McGovern. "You never want to settle for 3. A game can change fast. It doesn’t take a lot to have a 10-point lead disappear. … It’s kind of been, we haven’t been the best in the red zone so it’s something we got to fix.’
McManus made field goals from 29 and 21 yards and also tackled Zach Pascual at midfield on the game-opening kickoff return.
Vinatieri missed a 45-yard field goal and what would have been a game-tying extra point, although he did make a 55-yard field goal with 2 seconds left in the half and second-half field goal from 45.
With 1 minute left in the first half, Colts quarterback Jacoby Brissett was only 3 of 6 for 30 yards. His final minute drive lifted his passing numbers to 7 of 11 for 73 yards.
To start the second half, Flacco hit the Broncos' official new No. 1 receiver Courtland Sutton on a deep, back-shoulder route for 25 yards to midfield. Sutton had three catches for 72 yards, but also had a couple passes go off his hands.
After some nice Lindsay runs, Sutton beat Ya-Sin for a pass interference penalty that put the ball at the Colts' 4 yard line. Royce Freeman scooted through a nice hole for a touchdown and a 13-3 lead.
The Colts came back on their next two possessions to score on a Vinatieri field goal and 10-yard touchdown run by Marlon Mack. The TD drive was aided on a roughing-the-passer penalty call on nose tackle Mike Purcell.
The Broncos suffered two significant injuries in the first half. Right tackle Ja'Wuan James, back after missing the previous six games with a knee injury, suffered another knee injury and did not return. Tight end Jeff Heuerman had a defender roll up on him from behind and he left with a knee injury.
Inside linebacker Todd Davis suffered a knee injury in the second half and didn't return.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Sports
