Mag 7: week 4

Johnny O gives the scoop

1.A whole lot of protection.Back, finally, to Freeney. You can’t say he didn’t see this past Sunday coming. He spoke last week of believing it would be tough for he and Mathis to get huge pressure in the passing game because of the lengths to which Denver would go to protect quarterback Kyle Orton. He was right, with the team’s lone sack a four-yarder by Mathis. But even Freeney didn’t know before the game quite the extent to which Denver would go. He said this week Denver “max-protected” probably 90 percent of the game. “We had one maybe two (opportunities to rush against one blocker) and when we had it the ball was gone,” Freeney said. “They did a great job of preparing to stop us, but I’ve always said when teams spend extra attention on leaving guys to protect their quarterback, other things will suffer, as in how many points they put on the board