Broncos notes: Colts' Manning won't be easy to sack

ENGLEWOOD – Peyton Manning isn’t the quickest or most elusive quarterback in the NFL, but he’s probably the hardest to sack.

Indianapolis has allowed 10 sacks, the fewest in the NFL, while attempting the second most passes in the league. When the Denver Broncos face the Colts and Manning on Sunday, they don’t harbor any dreams of sacking him multiple times.

“This game, it’s not about sacks," said Broncos outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil, who leads the NFL with 15 sacks. "It’s about being disruptive, getting to him and making him uncomfortable in the pocket. It may be far-fetched to say you’ll get two or three sacks on Peyton because he knows what’s going on behind him and he does a good job getting rid of the ball.”

Manning won’t tuck the ball and run like Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers or Tennessee’s Vince Young, but he has great awareness and is agile enough to move and buy a little time.

“He moves well in the pocket, there’s no question about that,” Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said. “I would rate quarterbacks’ ability to avoid sacks not with speed and all of that stuff, but his ability to move or slide just slightly in the pocket to allow his linemen to push somebody past or have a better angle to make their blocks successfully – that’s what great movement in the pocket is and he does that as well as anybody else.”

One thing that hasn’t worked well against Manning is blitzing him. Manning seems to find the open man and get rid of the ball before the pressure is applied.

“I guess he watches a lot of film because he knows what’s going on, knows what’s coming and knows when you’re blitzing,” Dumervil said. “There’s not much you can say but he knows the game. He’s like the (Michael) Jordan of football, he’s a really good player.”

Blitzing Manning is usually an opening for a big play. According to Stats, Inc., the Colts quarterback has completed 1,068-of-1,696 passes against the blitz for 12,978 yards, 119 touchdowns and only 36 interceptions. He has been sacked only 94 times against all those blitzes.

This year he has continued his success against the blitz, completing 75-of-108 passes for 965 yards, seven touchdowns and two interceptions, with only five sacks. That’s in line with his blitz numbers since the start of 2007: 236-for-355, 2,750 yards, 24 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

Scheffler improvement

One knock on tight end Tony Scheffler has been his blocking, but coaches are happy with his improvement. During the offseason he worked with tight ends coach Clancy Barone to become a better blocker.

“He’s done very well with that and other coaches around the league that either we have played against or seen him on tape have commented on that as well,” Barone said. “That speaks highly of the effort Tony has put into being a well-rounded tight end.”

Clady challenge

Ryan Clady needs to be at his best this week. The Broncos’ left tackle will go up against Colts end Dwight Freeney, who has 10.5 sacks this year and 81 in his eight NFL seasons. After allowing only half of a sack last year, Clady has allowed 4.5 this year, according to Stats, Inc.

“He’s an overall good player, gets the job done,” Clady said of Freeney. “He’s one of the best.”