Missing key piece
Jump-starting running game could get offense back on track
C.J. Anderson wants 10 and 110, and he probably won’t be satisfied with anything less. The running back is on a mission for double-digit carries and triple-digit yards to jump-start the Broncos’ running game and get the offense back on track, because he believes it starts there.
Coach Vance Joseph does too. “In our three victories … we were in firm control of how we attacked the defense,” Joseph said. “When you’re behind the sticks so much — in our three losses it’s been that way. First down is a stuff, second down is a quick pass, incomplete, and now we’re third-and-10. Who wants to operate like that?”
Joseph has said many times the Broncos’ latest offensive struggles go beyond the quarterback and a single positional group. It’s a unit-wide issue, he’s said, that really begins with poor field position, extends to their protection up front, includes the run game, is slowed by the passing game and turnovers by quarterback Trevor Siemian, and has created a ripple effect felt by the defense.
Because the Broncos (3-3) are unable to run the ball like they were in their first two victories, when they averaged 159 yards rushing per game, Siemian has been forced to pass sometimes as much as 50 times. When the offense is unable to gain a lead, opponents play it conservatively and don’t throw against Denver’s elite secondary.
“That’s the quarterback’s best friend,” Joseph said of the running game. “When you run the football, you control the game and you can
dictate to the defense.”
But it’s more than a dear companion to just the quarterback.
“People love to say that it’s really important to a quarterback,” said ESPN analyst Matt Hasselbeck, a former quarterback. “But I think it’s more important to the offensive line. The threat of that is actually more important, and they’re not getting explosive runs in the running game. They’re not. But they’re not committing to the run. They had committed to the run, but because of field position — I really think field position and their turnover differential are their really big things.”
Denver owns a minus-8 turnover differential that ranks 29th in the 32-team NFL. Its average field position is 26.9, ranking 26th in the league. And the effects are staggering.
In their three victories this season, the Broncos averaged 35.7 carries and 153.7 yards rushing per game, and totaled nine rushes of at least 10 yards.
In their three losses, they ran the ball only 19.7 times per game for 75.3 yards and totaled just five rushes of 10 or more yards.
More alarming are the dropoffs on first and second downs.
In their wins, the Broncos totaled 51 carries and 182 yards on first downs, plus 44 carries and 247 yards on second downs. They also recorded a pair of rushing touchdowns and a first-down conversion rate of 36.4 percent on second downs.
But in the losses, they came up with only 71 yards on first downs (29 carries), and only 16 carries, 111 yards, zero touchdowns and a 31.3 first-down conversion rate on second downs.
“Being better on first downs puts you in those third-and-manageables like we were in the first couple weeks of the season,” Anderson said. “If we can go first down, second down, first down, or first down, second down, thirdand-2, third-and-1, we give ourselves a higher percentage of moving the sticks and sustaining drives and staying on the field and eventually putting up points.”
The simple solution to those watching from afar is to run the ball more. Run it more and run it often to pound away at a defense. But rarely is it ever that simple. “I thought in the games where our running game was really good, we saw a lot of shell coverage and a lot of soft cover threes,” Joseph said. “Now teams have closed the middle, they’re making us block heavy fronts and they’re forcing our pass game to be effective. I said eventually someone’s going to close the middle to make our pass game come alive, and that’s what’s happened.
“We have to, first of all, with the run game, block the heavy fronts, block the eight-man fronts and its backs, make the guys miss who are unblocked because it’s going to be one guy on blocks in the heavy front. In the pass game, we have to be efficient. When they close the middle and play man-free or play cover three, we have to be efficient in the pass game. That hasn’t happened.”
Siemian, echoing the words of his head coach, acknowledged the revival of the running game requires all 11 men on the field, working in sync from front to back. Correcting its errors at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium is a tall task, but one Denver believes can be done against a defense that ranks 29th in total yards (396.3 allowed per game) and 25th (124.6) against the run.
“This is a defense that we feel like we have a good chance to attack in a lot of ways,” said rookie offensive tackle Garett Bolles. “We just have to stay consistent. They got really good players up front — big bodies that are quick and can move. So hopefully we can get it going so (Demaryius Thomas) and the guys on the edge can get it rolling.”
And so Anderson can hit his marks.
“Whether it’s 40 touches or 10 touches, I have to find a way,” Anderson said with a smile. “Ten carries for 110. That’s the goal.”