To understand the situation as Eric Decker did, though, is to understand the Broncos receiver is no wimp.
"I play on kickoff return, I play on punt return, I run block," Decker said. "I put my head in there. People can say whatever they want. My teammates know I'm not soft. They know I'll do everything possible to win because I'm a team player."
To set up the situation, the Broncos dress only four receivers — and No. 4, Matt Willis, had left the game with a strained hamstring. That left Decker and Demaryius Thomas as the only outside receivers and Brandon Stokley for slot formations.
The Broncos were down 31-11 late in the third quarter, so that meant pass pattern after pass pattern for Double D's: Decker and Demaryius.
With 1:16 left in the third, Decker ran a deep out for a 26-yard gain in which he outwrestled Karim Jackson for the ball with a one-handed stab and catch.
"Plays like that take enough out of you that you'd like a breather," Decker said. "But we weren't in that situation."
Decker stayed in, as he did for 78 of the Broncos' 81 offensive plays. On the very next play, quarterback Peyton Manning went to Decker again, this time on a crossing route. Decker picked up 13 yards and he could have gained more, but as the Texans' secondary converged, he slid feet-first into second base.
Only this wasn't Oakland, so there were no basepaths. Decker slid into the midfield stripe with 16 seconds left in the third quarter. The television commentators, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms, questioned Decker's slide maneuver. And the tweeters and bloggers took it from there saying Decker should have fought for additional yardage.
But given the Broncos' short-handed predicament, staying alive for another play was of utmost importance to a team in catch-up mode.
"With only three receivers, I didn't want to get my legs cut off and have us left with two receivers," Decker said. "There was a baseball instinct in me on the slide. And as I was running, I looked up and there were something like 20 seconds left. It wasn't the biggest thing, but I figured it would be one more play."
http://www.denverpost.com/broncos/ci...ns-why-he-took