Broncos’ Miller says Denver will ‘whup Cardinals’
Struggling squads in this week’s prime-time Thursday outing
GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Arizona Cardinals can’t run the football. The Denver Broncos can’t stop the run.
So maybe the ground game will be the deciding factor when these two struggling teams meet tonight.
“I’ll tell you this — and I’m a firm believer in this — stopping the run and running the football allows a team to control the game depending on who is doing that the best,” Broncos coach Vance Joseph said.
Arizona (1-5) ranks last in the NFL in total offense and in rushing, averaging 64 yards per game on the ground. Denver (2-4) is last in rushing defense, allowing 161.3 yards per game.
“We need to do a much better job up front as far as blocking, executing our assignments,” Cardinals coach Steve Wilks said, then referring to running back David Johnson: “We need to move him around a little bit more. Try to find ways to get him out into space, different things right here to try to open it up some.”
Denver has allowed 593 yards rushing in its last two games. Two of the opposing running backs, the New York Jets’ Isaiah Crowell and the Los Angeles Rams’ Todd Gurley, topped 200 yards rushing.
“We’ve had really two bad weeks, and it’s really with our nickel defense,” Joseph said. “We have to fix that and obviously play in more fronts and fix it that way.”
The Cardinals aren’t good against the run, either. They rank 31st in the NFL, just ahead of Denver, giving up 151.2 yards per game. That could clear the way for the Broncos’ rookie running back tandem of Phillip Lindsay and Royce Freeman, who have a combined four touchdowns and average 5.19 yards per carry.
But Denver has relied more on the passing of Case Keenum than in the running game in recent weeks.
The Cardinals will be without safety Tre Boston, who leads the team with three interceptions. He didn’t practice this week with shoulder and rib injuries.
The Broncos have lost four straight, the latest a close home loss to the undefeated Rams. Arizona has beaten Denver only once in the 10-game history of the series.
Here are some things to consider when the Broncos face the Cardinals:
Denver’s Von Miller has repeatedly promised that the Broncos would whup the Cardinals.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a must win,” Miller said. “We’re going to kick their (behind), though. Make sure you put that up there. We’re going to kick their (behind).”
Miller and rookie Bradley Chubb had 4½ sacks between them last week, but Miller insisted they hadn’t unlocked some sort of pass-rush puzzle.
“No, we just got on the board,” Miller said. “And if we’re playing our best, I don’t think there’s anybody in the league that can block me and Bradley. … Especially not the Cardinals. They’re going to get our best on Thursday. They got to come with their best.”
REDSKINS: Even after Dallas’ Dak Prescott rushed for 82 yards and a touchdown last week, Washington isn’t zeroing in on stopping the Cowboys’ quarterback.
“We don’t really care about him running,” Redskins linebacker Zach Brown said. “Him running is not really our concern.”
Their concern is Ezekiel Elliott, the Cowboys’ top running back who’s coming off 106 yards and a score against Jacksonville. After seeing Cam Newton with Carolina, the Redskins are prepared for Prescott, but after ranking last in the league in run defense last season — including allowing 351 yards in two games against Dallas — the Redskins know it all starts with containing Elliott.
“Definitely with their O-line, their running game is something that definitely jumps off on film,” linebacker Mason Foster said. “You don’t want to start thinking about Cam Newton or thinking about Dak Prescott so much that you’re letting Zeke and (Panthers running back Christian) McCaffrey run free because those are the guys who really can hurt you.”
DOLPHINS: With Ryan Tannehill ruled out of Sunday’s game against Detroit, Brock Osweiler will get another start at quarterback, and the Miami Dolphins’ super sub is optimistic he can deliver a successful encore to the most prolific game of his career last week.
But then Osweiler is always optimistic, even when he’s playing lousy.
“My confidence,” he said, “will never waver.”
A journeyman already at age 27, Osweiler will start his second game in a row for the Dolphins (4-2). They announced Wednesday that Tannehill will not play against the Lions because of an injury to his throwing shoulder.
Tannehill also missed an overtime win against the Chicago Bears last Sunday, and Osweiler stepped in to throw for a career-high 380 yards and three touchdowns.
BILLS: Quarterback Derek Anderson went from having Buffalo lure him out of semiretirement one week to taking over the starting job for injured rookie Josh Allen the next.
So much for the 35-year-old having any chance of easing his way back into football some 10 months since attempting what Anderson once thought might well have been the last pass — an incompletion — of his 12-year career.
“Things that happen in this game never amaze me,” Anderson said after practice Wednesday, a day after being informed he’ll start in Buffalo’s game at Indianapolis on Sunday.
Allen is week to week after the first-round draft pick sprained his right (throwing) elbow in a loss at Houston on Sunday.