Phillips bolsters Broncos
Defensive master has unit playing to its strengths
Wade Phillips has been nothing but deferential this season when it comes to his top-ranked Denver Broncos defense.
It’s his assistant coaches, he says, who teach the technique and spend the most time with players. And it’s those players, guys such as linebacker Von Miller and cornerback Aqib Talib, Phillips says, who truly make his scheme run. In his slow, Texas drawl, Phillips likes to say he’s just “clanging the bell” on Denver’s defensive train. But it’s all just a front. Read Phillips’ tweets — yes, a 68-year-old, three-time former NFL head coach is a prolific tweeter under the handle @sonofbum — and listen closely to his recent news conferences, and you’ll discover a brilliant defensive mind and a man who takes great pride in not just building a defensive scheme but in adapting it year to year, roster to roster.
“I don’t understand the people that say, ‘Hey, this is our scheme, and that guy can’t play in it. The guy can play, he’s a good player, but he can’t play in our scheme,’ ” Phillips said last week.
“Well, to me, there’s something wrong with your scheme.”
And that, indeed, has been the secret to his success in his first year as Denver’s defensive coordinator. He saw Talib and fellow cornerback Chris Harris and knew they were best suited to play man-to-man coverage. Phillips saw Miller and veteran pass rusher DeMarcus Ware, whom Phillips also coached with the Dallas Cowboys, and knew how he could aggressively send both off opposite edges while stunting defensive ends Derek Wolfe and Malik Jackson through the middle. Phillips saw two inside linebackers, Danny Trevathan and Brandon Marshall, who were strong against the run but also could be trusted to cover running backs on anything from screens to deep routes.
Phillips inherited all of those players from the previous regime, when Jack Del Rio ran the de- fense. And while the unit was a good one, Phillips made it great. All season, players have praised his play-calling and knack for knowing.
“You look at his track record, and how many times has Wade gone to an organization, team, and real fast done things?” coach Gary Kubiak said. “It tells you what type of teacher he is.”
The Broncos had 52 sacks in the regular season, most in the NFL, and then rode the defense to Super Bowl 50 after holding the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots to 34 total points in a pair of playoff victories. The performance against the Patriots was especially impressive, as Broncos defenders hit quarterback Tom Brady 20 times and intercepted two of his passes.
In the following days, Phillips took to Twitter to discuss the complicated art of blitzing — perhaps a shot at analysts who said the Broncos rarely blitzed against the Patriots — and later in the week gave a history lesson about the matchup zone coverage scheme. He might not have a Dick LeBeau-like reputation for confounding opposing offenses, but that doesn’t mean Phillips’ system is simple.
“I’m pretty confusing usually. We play a matchup zone, and people think it’s man-to-man. Then we play man-to-man, and we play some basic zone. We started a long time ago,” Phillips said.
That’s how you know his awshucks demeanor is just an act. This man knows football, and he learned it from his father, Bum Phillips, the former Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints head coach who died in 2013. Bum Phillips’ Oilers reached two AFC Championship Games in the 1970s but both times lost to the Steelers.
Now Phillips, whose son Wes is a third-generation NFL coach (tight ends coach for the Washington Redskins), is making his second Super Bowl trip as a coordinator but first since the 1989 season during his first stint with the Broncos.
“My dad was my hero. Not just my dad — he was also my high school coach and my college coach. I worked for him for 10 years as a defensive coach and defensive coordinator,” Phillips said.
“Everything that I learned about football and about people and how to work with people was from him.”