Struggling Cardinals, Broncos square off

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 on Thursday night.

“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) is last in the NFL in total offense and in rushing, averaging 64 yards on the ground. Denver (2-4) is last in rushing defense, allowing a whopping 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, 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 Jets’ Isaiah Crowell and the Rams’ Todd Gurley, topped 200 yards rushing, something that’s never happened against the same team in NFL history.

“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, allowing an average of 151.2 yards. That could clear the way for the Broncos’ rookie 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 has a team high 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.