The Broncos’ season-opening victory over the Panthers on Thursday gave Denver’s defense a new label. Their four (at least) helmet-to-helmet hits on Cam Newton was unnecessary and intentional, many believe. They were marks of a malicious team, they said. A dirty team.
“We’re not dirty,” linebacker Brandon Marshall said. “When I think of dirty, I think of stepping on somebody’s ankle at the bottom of a pile (or) twisting somebody around. Stuff like that. We just play hard, man. We hit hard. We play fast. We play faster than any defense in the league, in my opinion. Just because we hit Cam in the head a couple of times, that doesn’t make us dirty.