[Quesadilla Joe]

Pressure Cooker


During one of the first periods of 11-on-11 work, the Bears faced a 3rd-and-long. As Trubisky called for the snap, it came out low, forcing him to drop his hands and his eyes as he attempted to grab the ball. By the time he caught the ball at his shoe strings and looked up, all he could see was Von Miller’s white jersey bearing down on him. As fast as he could, Trubisky chucked the ball to the right sideline, over the head of his receiver.

“Good Lord,” exclaimed one Chicago reporter next to me.

“This is a rare chance to see this Von Miller in a practice, ” I told him. “This is usually reserved for Sundays.”

It only got better from there.

In every single period of 11-on-11 work, Miller had at least one pressure and often had more than that.

During the third-down situational period, as defensive coordinator Joe Woods rattled off pressure look after pressure look, Miller had two sacks. The first came on 3rd-and-2 as he smoked right tackle Bobby Massie and the second came on 3rd-and-5, as Miller beat Massie on the inside with a spin move.

On the next set of third downs, Shane Ray took his turn coming off of the right side of the offensive line. On 3rd-and-5, Ray cruised around the outside for the sack. Then, on 3rd-and-8, He came through the inside of the line for another.

Bradley Chubb added two sacks of his own on the day and the Broncos, as a team, had 10.

It was a true display of what this group of pass rushers can do. Out of 15 third-down plays the Broncos got the stop on 11.

Also on the subject of pressure, during a one-on-one pass rush period, the Broncos outside linebackers and defensive lineman abused the Bears’ offensive line. Now, this drill favors the pass rush because the snap is always on one and the OL has no help from their teammates, something that defensive coordinators spend their entire offseason trying to figure out how to make happen just a couple times in a game.

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