In a convincing 29-12 victory over Cleveland the last time the Broncos played on the Empower Field turf, perhaps the most impressive aspect of the game was the manner in which the home team ran the football.
Denver’s rushing attack was creative and varied.
It went right at the Browns’ powerful defense between the tackles.
It helped neutralize All-Pro defensive end Myles Garrett by making him the targeted man for quarterback Russell Wilson in zone read scenarios.
If the Broncos offense this year is going as far as the running game can take it, that day the possibilities felt pretty lofty.
Three weeks later, the Broncos return home with more questions than answers and more consternation than comfort.
Most recently, Denver managed just 83 yards on 28 carries in a blowout loss to Detroit.
Naturally, they weren’t going to rush for a ton of yards after falling behind by several scores. Just like earlier this month against Houston, however, part of the reason they fell behind in the first place was offensive inefficiency, particularly in the run game.
Between Marvin Mims gaining 11 yards on Denver’s first rush attempt of the night at Detroit — an end-around just before Russell Wilson fumbled on the Broncos’ opening drive — and a Wilson kneeling down to end the half, they gained just 16 yards on eight attempts and two total first downs on offense.
In that same span, the game went from being a punt-fest to Detroit leading 21-0.
“We didn’t run it as well as I thought we would, and quite honestly, I think that’s an area (of focus),” coach Sean Payton said Monday. “Cleveland was the last game where I felt like we ran it really well. I think in this next three-game stretch, we’re going to have to run it better than we have.”
The Chargers (No. 18) and Las Vegas (No. 25) are both in the bottom half of the league in run defense, but New England comes to town Sunday night allowing the second-fewest rushing yards per game in the NFL (84.9 per game) despite a lowly 3-11 record.
The Broncos, then, will have to find ways to make hay on the ground against a stingy opponent.
“I think it just comes with having a pass game that’s complimentary to your run in a way,” tight end Adam Trautman said Monday. “We’ve been struggling the past few games to move the ball on the ground, and obviously that’s the strength of our offense. Teams are putting their own wrinkles on it and showing us stuff we maybe haven’t seen and things like that.
“So obviously we’ll be focusing on that and trying to do it better because it needs to get better.”
It’s been a struggle the past three weeks. In that span, the Broncos are averaging just 3.4 yards per carry and 102.3 yards per game. Before that stretch, they’d averaged 4.4 per carry and 115.5 per game.
“When you do something really, really good, that’s normally how the NFL responds to stop it,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said of Denver’s flagging rushing production Saturday night after the loss to Detroit. “They were going to do everything they could to make us not run the football today. When you get outnumbered and things like that, it was a good plan. Credit to them. They played their asses off, they have a lot of talented football players and they made us earn it. Unfortunately we didn’t make enough plays to keep ourselves in it. …
“We stalled way too much and went three-and-out way too much and just couldn’t keep pace.”
Part of the conversation going forward will be about who fills which role. Javonte Williams has been the Broncos’ lead back, with Jaleel McLaughlin providing a change of pace with Samaje Perine mostly operating as the third-down and two-minute back. Those roles have been set for good reason, particularly McLaughlin’s lack of pass-protecting chops as an undersized rookie and Perine’s reliability as a pass-catcher.
But amid the overall drop in production recently, Williams’ numbers have sagged, too.
Williams over the past three games has carried 42 times for 139 yards, a 3.4 per-carry average.
And though Williams has lacked big-play ability this year in his first season off a major knee injury sustained in Oct. 2022, the others have had mixed results, too. Perine and McLaughlin each look like they have more burst than Williams at this point, but Williams’ rushing yards share over the past three games (45.2%) is actually higher than it was in the eight games before that (40.5%) despite virtually identical carry share.
“We like to think we have all three of those guys, running backs, I’m talking about, that are capable runners,” Payton said.
Then, also, Wilson has just 11 yards on 13 carries the past two weeks after logging 30 or more in six of Denver’s eight previous.
No matter how the Broncos do it the next three weeks, they’re going to have to get more production if they want to win their next three games.
“It’s just about having answers against different things,” Trautman said. “We’ve seen the majority of what defenses can throw at us, so it’s about having answers for different things and adjusting. We’ve done that, our coaches have done a great job with game plans, so it comes down to players executing and really being locked in on the scheme and what we know and how to run it because we’ve been doing the same stuff since camp.
“So it’s just about being better and being detail-oriented.”
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