Did Phillips break football code with blitzing Broncos vs. Bears?

The Denver Broncos defense clearly didn’t miss a beat from it’s top-ranked, Super Bowl 50-winning unit last season, shutting out the Chicago Bears 22-0 in its preseason opener Thursday.

Among the carnage was seven sacks, including one that forced a fumble and another for a safety.

And all this without Denver’s top edge rushers — DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller — and top cornerbacks — Chris Harris Jr. and Aqib Talib.

But did Broncos defensive coordinator Wade Phillips break a football code by dialing up the pressure during the preseason?

By most accounts, no, aside from a handful of people in the Twitterverse.

“Wade Phillips will tell you it’s not blitzing; it’s the scheme,” Denver 7 Broncos Insider Troy Renck told “Schlereth and Evans” Friday morning. “They’re just aggressive in the way they release guys.”

And Bears head coach John Fox echoed the sentiment in his press conference following Thursday night’s game.

“It was pretty remedial stuff,” Fox said. “… At this stage we should have executed better.”

Renck compared the Bears offensive line to a “dumpster fire,” saying if anyone was upset that the Broncos were getting into the Chicago offensive back field then they should have stopped it.

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“If you don’t like what we’re doing, block us. And I’m not saying that to be cynical, but come on,” Renck said. “… I mean I get it. There’s some kinds of codes. But I don’t know who Chicago would’ve blocked last night. I mean, they were out of sync from jump.”

“Schlereth and Evans” co-host Mark Schlereth said later in the preseason perhaps an agreement on blitzing and defense scheme could be reached by opposing coaches but evaluation is such an important part of early preseason games that it would be counterproductive to hold back.

“The only time you would be breaking a code is like in the fourth preseason game if you have an agreement between coaching staffs that we’re not going to blitz you. If you sat down and said, ‘OK. We’re not going to come after you,’” Schlereth said. “The first three preseasons games? No.”

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Renck echoed the sentiment, saying it’s even dangerous to tug the reins on such an aggressive defense like the Broncos have.

“You can’t tell guys to play half throttle. That’s when guys get hurt,” Renck said. “And this defense especially. They get on the field, they drop their fangs, and they get after it. That’s who they are, and if you don’t like it, I say block better.”

Follow 104.3 The Fan digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.