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Denver Broncos | News

Broncos, Briefly: Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018

"I didn't have a good game that night," Harris said Wednesday. "It was tough that game. It was pretty much on me that game. We didn't have anybody in our secondary that game. I think all my safeties were gone. I think I was out there with Bush and Keo, so that was a hard game. It won't be anything like that again."

Indeed, starting safeties Darian Stewart and T.J. Ward were both out with injuries. The Broncos started David Bruton and Josh Bush in their place, with Shiloh Keo coming off the bench as the third safety. Harris will have Stewart and Justin Simmons behind this week as he takes on Brown.

"It's the best versus the best," Harris said. "You've got to embrace it. I've had an All-Pro receiver every week, so it doesn't stop. You've just got to continue, like I said, playing my game and being consistent."

A rookie third round pick, Yiadom will get an opportunity to prove he could be the team's second or third cornerback in 2019.

"Exactly," Yiadom said. "When I get my chance, I'm going to make sure I do my thing so the coaches can trust me."

A 2017 third-round pick who played in 11 games as a rookie, Langley must show he belongs in the Broncos' plan in any form for next year.

"It's a pretty big opportunity for me," he said. "Hopefully I can take advantage of it."

In the Broncos' last five games, Miller and Chubb have each recorded at least half a sack. If they do it again against Pittsburgh, they'll become the first NFL teammates in history to have simultaneous six-game sack streaks.

What's more: Chubb's nine sacks leads all rookies and is tied for the fourth-most all-time through a player's first 10 games.

Not bad for a kid Miller has jokingly described as a toddler with a maturity beyond his years.

"I told you from the get-go, Chubb is like one of those toddlers," Miller reiterated Wednesday. "Chubb is like one of those guys, he's just way past his years. I told Chubb today I'm grateful and appreciative to be able to play with a top-five pick like that because he's definitely come in, he's definitely lived up to the hype, he's definitely more than advertised and it's a true blessing to play with a guy that like."

What makes this remarkable is the Broncos have two mouths to feed in the backfield. Rookie Royce Freeman owns 332 yards. The pair's 1,002 yards on the ground is tied for the fourth-best running duo in the NFL through 11 weeks. Lindsay believes they complement each other well, Denver's version of a jab and a haymaker.

"(Lindsay) is a firecracker," Bolles said. "He's going to do everything we need to put us in a good situation. The way he pounds the rock, he gives people problems."

Added quarterback Case Keenum, "I think being undrafted gives him a chip on his shoulder."

"Whenever I hit these milestones, for me, I take it in because there aren't too many guys that get to do that with one organization," Miller said. "There's not too many guys that get to do that with a guy next to them the whole entire time. Out of 100 sacks, Wolfe has probably been next to me on 90 of them or 87 of them, something like that.

"Whenever you hit a milestone like that, I take time and I think about. Like you said, you want to go for the next 100."

His favorite sacks are all of Broncos Country's favorite sacks – the two strip sacks of Cam Newton in Super Bowl 50. Those two plays pushed Miller from star to crossover superstar.

By this new, evolving standard, there's no question Chicago is the No. 1 defense in this new NFL. The Bears rank first in the league in both points per possession allowed (1.58) and turnovers forced (27). The Broncos don't quite measure up. The Denver defense ranks 18th of 32 teams in points per possession, at 2.08, and a pedestrian 15th in turnovers, with 14.

But it was an interception of a screen pass by Broncos linebacker Von Miller, who returned a ball thrown by Philip Rivers 42 yards to put Denver's offense immediately in business in the red zone, which completely flipped a game late in the third quarter in Los Angeles.

Up until that point, the Chargers had not been forced to punt a single time, and Rivers was well on his way to throwing for 401 yards, a single-game total surpassed by John Elway only once in the 234 regular-season games of his illustrious career. Throwing for 400 yards isn't the big deal it used to be, another reason why the value of forcing turnovers has increased.

"Turnovers are killers," Miller said. Turnovers might be the only legal weapon left for an NFL defense.

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