Broncos’ defense bracing for visit from Beast Mode
In June 2016, Marshawn Lynch, donning a leather Beast Mode hat and white Beast Mode shirt, sat in front of the cameras for a rare interview and talked about his life as an NFL retiree. Asked if he would come out of retirement, say, for his hometown Oakland Raiders, he said: “No, I’m done.”
But when asked about his playing style, he gave a more colorful answer:
“If you just run through somebody’s face, a lot of people ain’t going to be able to take that over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. And over and over and over and over and over again. They just not gonna want that,” Lynch deadpanned. The takeaway?
“Run through a (expletive) face. Then you don’t have to worry about him no more.”
Though he said he wouldn’t, Lynch is back — and so are his “Beast Mode” ways, which will pose a tough challenge Sunday for the Broncos’ leagueleading run defense (an average of 59.7 yards allowed per game).
“We have to gang tackle him,” Broncos coach Vance Joseph said. “We have to chase the ball and you cannot assume the first guy’s got him, because if you do that, the first guy is not really going to get him all the time. We have to put in effort and chase the ball. That’s the main thing.”
Through three games, Lynch is averaging 46.3 yards rushing per game and 3.9 yards per carry, below his career averages of 71.2 and 4.2, respectively. But he again leads the league in broken tackles, with four.
Since he entered the NFL in 2007, Lynch has led the league in broken tackles or tied for first two other times (18 in 2013, 28 in 2014) and, including this season, has ranked among the top five six times.
The Broncos have faced some of the league’s top running backs already. They held the Chargers’ Melvin Gordon to 54 yards, limited Dallas’ Ezekiel Elliott to a career-low 8 yards on nine carries and held Buffalo’s LeSean McCoy and Mike Tolbert to a combined 62 yards.
But Lynch is a force unto his own. So how do you stop Beast Mode? Ask around the Broncos’ locker room, and there seems to be a consensus. But it doesn’t mean the approach is at all simple:
“We have to play well up front with our front seven. We have to have gap control,” defensive coordinator Joe Woods said. “Our linebackers have to hit their gaps and we have to do a good job of getting multiple guys to the point of attack. We have to gang tackle him.”
Added defensive end Derek Wolfe: “I don’t know what it is about him, but he just keeps his legs going. There are a lot of backs that do that, but a lot of running backs like to bounce off people. He goes through people. So that’s the challenge: You have to run through him and gang tackle him, and everybody has to be there. It’s going to be more than one person that brings him down.”
Said safety Justin Simmons: “He’s a strong, heavy guy, so you have to make sure you come up, wrap up and hold on.”
And outside linebacker Von Miller: “You just gotta get him on the ground. I remember there was one time I tried to tackle him, (he was with) the Seattle Seahawks, and I had him behind the line. It was like a yard and I think I had one leg and he dragged me the next two and got the first down. So you just gotta get him on the ground.
“Usually when you get a running back, he’ll just fall, but Marshawn, he’s definitely Beast Mode. They call him that for a reason.”