ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- John Fox and Julius Thomas wanted to make one point clear Monday: there was no intent to chop block or injure Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell.

The knee injury that Campbell suffered after being blocked low by Thomas and high by left tackle Ryan Clady has been a subject of consternation for the Cardinals and their head coach, Bruce Arians, who labeled it the "dirtiest play I've ever seen in the National Football League."

"It's not what either one of us is about," Thomas said. "There's no intention to hurt anybody."

Had Thomas been the only player blocking, the result would have been a cut block.

"Cut blocking is allowed in the National Football League and utilized by everybody in the league, but you cannot have the tackle engage [the defender] and cut block at the same time," Fox said. "But that in no way was intentional. [It's] never been coached by me or anybody on my staff or any player we have on our football team in four years."

It was the first time the officials penalized the Broncos for a chop block since Fox's arrival in January 2011.

Fox cited communication issues as a factor behind the collision.

"It was a look that we had not seen much of; we weren't targeting anybody in particular. Calais was lined up at end and he spends most of his time inside. It was a three-man rush and we didn't communicate as well as we'd like," Fox said. "I never like to see any player injured, including an opponent's player. It cost us a 77-yard touchdown, so we're not coaching that."

Thomas agreed.

"It's just that me and Clady are trying to communicate something, and we couldn't get it communicated right. He thought I was going to do something; I thought he was going to do something else. It ends up in a play that looks bad, but we're definitely not trying to make it to where somebody can't finish the game or gets hurt."