The pressure on the rookie came from all over, as seven different Broncos defenders recorded at least half of a sack on Thursday. Through seven games, 12 different Broncos have been credited with at least half of a sack.
“The group is awesome,” Allen said. “The cool thing too is it’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m in it for me. I’m in it for me.’ We genuinely want to see everyone get it. We’ve got a really special group, and really, it’s a race to the quarterback.”
Third-year outside linebacker Nik Bonitto (5.0 sacks) currently leads all Broncos defenders in quarterback takedowns, as he has recorded a sack in five consecutive games. Bonitto is the first Bronco since Von Miller in 2018 to post a sack streak of at least five games.
The pressure doesn’t end there, though. Outside linebacker Jonathon Cooper (4.5), Allen (4), inside linebacker Justin Strnad (3) and defensive end John Franklin-Myers (3) have all recorded at least three sacks on the season.
“I thought we handled the run, and then we were able to get enough pressure,” Head Coach Sean Payton said of Thursday’s performance.
A week after allowing the Chargers to convert eight of their first 10 third-down attempts, the Broncos held the Saints to 5-of-17 on third downs. Denver also allowed just three points until the waning moments of the game, when Jake Haener threw a touchdown to shrink the Broncos’ margin of victory.
As Denver’s defenders celebrated a win, they were also clear that they expect to continue to uphold the same level of play.
“The standard’s high,” Allen said, “and we’ve just got to keep on pressing.”