ENGLEWOOD
Demaryius Thomas can’t quite put his finger on his butterfingers.
“First time ever,” Denver’s star receiver replied when asked when was the last time he dropped three passes in a game as he did last week.
Not at West Laurens High School in Montrose, Georgia., where he won a state basketball championship as a senior after earning a scholarship.
Not at Georgia Tech, where he was lucky to be targeted three times a game by the run-oriented Yellow Jackets.
Then came the Colts on Sunday night, and Thomas dropped two passes on third downs and another in which he was wide open for a big gain.
“It was bothering me after the first one, and I guess I let it linger on and bother me the other two,” Thomas said.
This from the two-time Pro Bowler who even made the erratic Tim Tebow look good back in 2011.
“I don’t know what it was,” Thomas said. “Probably thinking too much.”
In the first quarter, Thomas was running free with two blockers in front of him when the ball skipped off his hands. He dropped another in the third quarter and one in the fourth, helping the Colts whittle away a 24-point deficit to a single touchdown.
Thomas dropped eight of the 142 passes thrown his way last season. He dropped three Sunday night when he was targeted 11 times.
“You can’t figure it out,” Thomas said. “You’ve got to let that go. Once it’s a drop, it’s a drop. You’ve got to go on to the next play.”
And yet, Thomas didn’t do that as one dropped turned into two and then three.
The Broncos’ coaching staff counted five drops altogether from Peyton Manning’s pass catchers in Denver’s 31-24 win.
“It was a little surprising to see that, especially D.T. having a couple of them, which is very unusual,” offensive coordinator Adam Gase said. “I think last year he was probably one of our better guys (dropping only 5.6 percent of passes). He’s playing a different spot, has a lot on his plate. Maybe that first one got in his head a little bit.”
All of his drops came within 4 yards of the line of scrimmage with significant yards after the catch a possibility.
“My main thing was trying to get the ball up the field too fast,” Thomas said. “So, this week has been mainly watch the ball in before I make the move.”
Thomas led the league in yards after the catch in 2013. Almost half – 704 – of his 1,430 yards on 92 receptions came with the ball in his hands.
“He knows the play really well so he knows he’s got a chance for a big play sometimes,” Gase said. “And you get ready to take off and especially how explosive he is, he’s looking to get that ball in his hands as fast as possible and get north.”
This was Thomas’ sixth sub-50-yard game since 2012. In games following those performances, he’s bounced back with an average of six catches for 109 yards with four touchdowns.
According to SportingCharts.com, Thomas has been targeted 403 times in his career and dropped 29 passes, or 7.1 percent.
This year, that number is a whopping 27.3 percent.
“It’s over with,” Thomas said.
Broncos beat
Another Broncos player who’s coming off a career first is All-Pro right guard Louis Vasquez. He’s been flagged just seven times in his six-year career but two came Sunday, when he was whistled twice for holding. On one of them, he deliberately held his man to keep Peyton Manning from getting pummeled. “I’m not going to let it affect my game,” Vasquez said. ... Gene Mingo, Dan Reeves, and Rick Upchurch will be inducted into the Broncos’ Ring of Fame on Sunday.
