This Time, Broncos Must Stick With Run Game

Last season, the Denver Broncos entered the playoffs with a serviceable running game. Knowshon Moreno grinded out his first 1,000 rushing-yard season and his backup, then-rookie Montee Ball, had shown solid improvement as the year went on. On paper, the Broncos looked to have had a pretty complete offense.

That couldn’t have been further from the truth, though.

Denver’s record breaking offense relied heavily on the arm of quarterback Peyton Manning. Manning shattered just about every significant record a quarterback could have in a single season and it wasn’t because he had a good rushing attack.

The running game only got going when opposing defenses dared the Broncos’ offense to run, and even then it wasn’t good enough.

In other words, it was only called upon when needed.

When the playoffs began, that all changed.

Ball control and offensive balance was the name of the game. When the Broncos faced their divisional rival in the San Diego Chargers, they dominated the time of possession battle with a physical offensive line and unrelenting ground and pound approach.

Next week in the AFC Championship game versus the New England Patriots, it was more of the same.

Although Manning tossed for 400 yards, he wasn’t sacked once on his historic day and had a great amount of pressure taken off of his shoulders with the threat of the running game behind him.

Time of possession weighed once again in Denver’s favor as the Patriots’ defense was bullied by the Broncos’ offensive line.

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Since that day in January, Denver has seemingly tried to outrun that which truly got them to the Super Bowl.

Their rushing attack has only popped up in spots this season and has had no consistency.

Worse than that, there’s been absolutely no form of commitment to running the ball. Offensive coordinator Adam Gase has not even come relatively close to living up to what he said in the offseason in regards to wanting a balanced offense this season.

This brings us to last Sunday’s game when the Broncos hosted the Miami Dolphins.

Coming off of a dreadful 22-7 drubbing at the hands of the St. Louis Rams a week earlier, it was unclear as to how Manning and the rest of the team would respond.

After the loss to the Rams, the Broncos firmly thrust themselves into the eye of the storm, if you will. They could not and still cannot afford to lose another game this season and drop themselves further down the playoff seeding order.

Their offense had no other choice but to embrace the offensive strategy of ball control with a ground and pound mentality.

They embodied that philosophy against the Dolphins.

Nov 23, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) prepares to hand off to running back C.J. Anderson (22) in the first quarter against the Miami Dolphins at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

It was a brutally tough game for the Broncos on both sides of the ball. Between the overload of penalties, shoddy defensive play, and special teams gaffes, it seemed like Denver was headed for a consecutive smooth “L” in the loss column.

In spite of everything that went wrong Sunday, the running game headed by C.J. Anderson saved the day.

The offense started out of the gate running and finished the hard fought contest sprinting. Gase and Manning never strayed from this successful offensive path.

Anderson trampled a stout Dolphins front to the tune of 167 yards. He even added a touchdown late in the fourth quarter that was basically the game-winner. On the day, Anderson carried the rock 27 times and his backup, rookie Juwan Thompson, recorded five more carries for 33 yards.

That’s one helluva day from the offense.

The offensive line will be overlooked by Anderson’s monster of a game, but they out-toughed and man-handled the Miami defense. It was by far the finest performance they’ve had all season and Anderson had high praise for his line after the game.

"“They took so much (heat) during the week,” Anderson said. “They’re still human and some of them got feelings. They’re not going to tell you, but some of them were hurt… You just have to give it up to the big boys up front. They took so much heat from the outside and the media all week.”"

Most importantly, out of all of this, is that Gase stuck to his game plan of pounding the rock and playing a physical brand of football that the Broncos are capable of excelling at. Even on a fourth-and-two, down two scores, Gase opted to run it with Anderson. He scampered through a gaping hole for 20 yards as he converted the all too important down.

The offense needs to continue playing this style of football.

In the second half, they were able to seize control of the game because of their ability to run the ball so effectively. The offensive line completely wore out the Dolphins’ lauded front and were able to control the pace of the game, as well as keep their defense off of the field.

Much like in the playoffs, the Broncos won the time of possession battle again, this time by nearly ten minutes.

Not bad.

Gase and the offense can’t shy away any longer from playing this style of football. It’s physical, slow paced, and requires a supreme amount of commitment.

It’s time for the offense to embrace this on a game-to-game basis.

The perfect balance they had last Sunday of 35 throws and 35 runs won’t always be achieved, sure, but it’s worth a shot.

The Broncos will travel to Missouri to play the 7-4 Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday night. There’s no better time to enact their new-found physicality than in a pivotal, prime time matchup with their most hated division rival.