Stokley: Establishing run against Seahawks key for Broncos victory

In order for the Denver Broncos to have a chance to win on Sunday, the offense needs to establish the run game, says Brandon Stokley.

The “Stokley and Zach” co-host said on Tuesday the most important player for the Broncos as they take on the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday at home, outside of quarterback Case Keenum, needs to be rookie running back Royce Freeman.

“This is a team where you need to establish the run (against),” Stokley said. “If you don’t establish the run and they get the lead, they make it very, very difficult for you.”

Although many of the big-name stars from Seattle’s Super Bowl-caliber defense have departed — Cam Chancellor, Richard Sherman, and Michael Bennett among them — Stokley said to not sleep on this Seahawks defensive unit.

“Don’t overlook them because we don’t know a lot of those names and a lot of the great Super Bowl players that they had are gone,” Stokley said. “They’ve still got some really good football players over there on defense.”

And in order to counteract the Seahawks strong defense, Stokley said the Broncos need to set up the play action game by first establishing the run.

“Getting the run game going. Getting Royce Freeman some touches. And then, off of that, you go with your play-action game,” Stokley said. “And now that’s set up. But you have to establish the play action game through running the football and having those safeties and those linebackers respect your run.”

Seattle plays, basically, the same philosophy must of the time, Stokley said, but the key to the Broncos beating the Seahawks lies in out-executing its defense.

“You’ve got to go out there, you know what they’re going to be doing, you’ve got to be patient, take what’s given to you, But if you can run the football against them, that sets up everything else,” Stokley said.

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @JohnnyHart7.