Doom and Gloom are back in Denver. What? Saying that after a win in Oakland?
What I mean is Elvis Dumervil and Von Miller are back as the Broncos one-two pass rushing punch.
The reason why the Broncos drafted Miller with the No. 2 overall pick last year was to be a dual threat pass rushing team. Now that Dumervil is back healthy and in better shape, the duo showed what they were capable of against the Raiders.
“I think the fact that they’re on different sides, and we did a couple of new things with Von yesterday, they’re both threats,” John Fox said.
The Broncos brought Miller up the middle more on the rush. It paid off. He finished the day with four tackles, half a sack, and plenty of pressure on Carson Palmer.
Miller said that Dumervil has become a mentor to him and will give him helpful advice as the game rolls on.
“Before the snap, I can ask him, ‘Elvis what did you beat him with?’ He can tell me and it will work. I never had that in football before.”
Besides being a great sage, Dumervil is showing that he can still record a sack or two himself. In fact, after battling a shoulder injury and an ankle injury, Dumervil had his first sack of the season when he brought Palmer down in the backfield. He added another half sack when he and Miller took Palmer down for a 3.5 yard loss.
“He (Dumervil) helps me a lot except my sacks go down when he’s in there,” Miller joked.
Dumervil finished the day with 3 tackles, 1.5 sacks, and 1 pass deflection. Fox said that it was one of the better games to date for both Miller and Dumervil.
“It’s more for the offense to deal with just like if you have two shutdown corners versus one shutdown corner,” Fox said of his dynamic duo. “You create some of the same problems for the protection.”
As soon as the silver and black checkered flag was waved, this pass rushing combination only lightly touched the gas petal. They should be off to the races as the season progresses and both men remain healthy.
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