Don’t take this the wrong way, Broncos fans. But Shaquil Barrett felt that if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play like that against a real team, they might wind up in, you know, trouble.
“The two-minute drive that we gave up, that’s really going to hurt us against a team who’s making us work for everything, every game, every quarter,” Barrett, the Tampa Bay outside linebacker, said after helping to dismantle the Broncos, his former squad, on Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High.
“So we’ve got to work on it, eliminate that. Because we’re supposed to be out here (dominating). Not to like, (say) anything against the Broncos, but we (should) have dominated that game. And kept them to no touchdowns, honestly.
“We always had mental lapses at one point during the game. But it didn’t come back to hurt us this game, so that’s good.”
And Barrett? Much to the chagrin of the hundreds of non-cardboard fans at Mile High, he was excellent Sunday.
The ex-Broncos pass-rushing specialist, a mainstay of the Denver defense from 2014-18 and former CSU standout, recorded two sacks and dragged Jeff Driskel to the ground in the end zone for a safety during the third quarter to put the Bucs up 25-10.
“We all want to make plays, we all want to be that guy,” Barrett said. “And when your number’s called, you just make it happen. Even if your number’s not called you can still make plays. So we all just (have) got that everybody-wants-to-eat mentality, and we’re going to make it happen.”
Barrett, whose the-one-who-got-away vibe among Denver faithful almost matches that of former Rockies star D.J. LeMahieu, came in looking for his first sack of the autumn after leading the NFL in that category (19.5) a year ago.
Bucs coach Bruce Arians said Tampa utilized pressure up the middle to force the Broncos to have to try and stop Barrett 1-on-1. Multiple times Sunday, the offensive line couldn’t.
For the afternoon, Denver quarterbacks Driskel and Brett Rypien were sacked six times. Broncos quarterbacks have been taken down 13 times over the last two contests.
“Some of those sacks, stuff breaks down,” said Driskel, who’s been sacked 11 times combined against the Steelers and Bucs. “Just toss it away so you don’t get behind the sticks and put your play-caller in a tough position.”
Barrett’s emergence puts Broncos general manager John Elway in a tough position, having watched the former Rams pass-rusher walk away after the 2018 season.
Denver had signed Barrett as an undrafted free agent in 2014 and the Nebraska prep product blossomed in a reserve role from 2015-18. But the Broncos drafted Bradley Chubb in the spring of 2018 to pair with Von Miller, and the writing was on the wall. Barrett, who wanted a chance to start, signed with Tampa as a free agent in March 2019, a move that saw his career take off.
“It was a normal morning,” Barrett said of waking up Sunday in Denver, his old home. “It wasn’t until I got to the stadium that I started feeling the emotions, the excitement, the enthusiasm.”
If karma’s been kind to Barrett, it’s been comparatively cruel to his old Broncos running mates. Miller is expected to miss most or all of this season with an ankle injury, while Chubb was absent for most of last fall with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Since Week 1 of 2019, Barrett has racked up 21.5 sacks compared to Miller’s eight and Chubb’s one.
“Yeah, (Sunday) definitely did feel good,” Barrett said. “I’m still never happy or satisfied with your performance — it felt like I left some plays out there. But overall, we played well, we played good, I played well, and I’m happy we just got the win. That’s the most important thing.”
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