If the Broncos are to keep winning, they must get better on the ground
Dec 19, 2024, 4:33 PM
LOS ANGELES — For the Denver Broncos, the problems with the running game could put a clear and low ceiling on their potential for the next three weeks — and, they hope, the potential games beyond that.
Having a “hot hand” approach isn’t, in theory, one of them. While that’s a fantasy-football nightmare, it can work if managed properly. The blocking up front generally isn’t, either; the Broncos offensive line ranks second in the NFL in run-block win rate, according to ESPN Analytics.
So, what is?
Sean Payton — who has a background as a running-backs coach going back to his earliest days in coaching — has an idea.
“There’s some looks we’ve got to be better at relative to when we’re running a certain play into some tough looks where now you don’t really have the leverage,” he explained this week.
“We’ve got to do a better job as coaches, starting with me and having solutions when the looks aren’t what you’re practicing.”
Added tight end Adam Trautman: “I think the scheme has been good. I think we know what we’re attacking and how we’re trying to attack the defense. I think teams also, like Indianapolis, came out and kind of gave us a Lot of different looks to things we weren’t expecting necessarily.
“We adapted well ID’ing and everything, but it kind of did stop some of our runs a lot earlier than we thought they were going to.”
Indianapolis isn’t the first team to try and mix up and stack its fronts against the Broncos; Las Vegas did, as well.
“Here we are with three weeks left in the season — we have to find more consistency there,” Payton said.
What the Broncos have done isn’t good enough. And it won’t be.
“It’s a huge deal. If you can’t run the ball in late December and into the playoffs, you can’t win games,” Trautman said. “… It’s obviously the most important thing, I think offensively in the playoffs.
3.4
Yardage per carry since the Broncos went to the “hot hand” approach at running back beginning with the 16-14 loss at Kansas City in Week 10. Since then, each of the three running backs has at some point led the charge — Audric Estimé in Kansas City, Javonte Williams against Atlanta and Jaleel McLaughlin in the last three games before suffering a quadriceps injury on Sunday.
31
Current streak of Broncos games without a 100-yard rusher, which is the longest such streak for the team in over 41 years, since a 36-game skein without a running back reaching the milestone from Week 9 of the 1980 season through Week 4 of 1983, when Sammy Winder snapped it.
It’s also more than twice as long as the next-longest ongoing streak, which belongs to Miami (15 regular-season games). Denver, Las Vegas and Miami are the only teams this season without an individual 100-yard rusher.
The current streak is the fourth-longest in franchise history, trailing that 1980-83 streak and streaks of 38 and 45 games in the 1960s. The club record of 45 was set in the opening 45 games of Broncos history.
2
Broken tackles by the Broncos in the last five games, per SportRadar.com. With just one broken tackle every 62 attempts, the Broncos rank 31st in the NFL in broken tackles on run plays in that span.
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