In Sunday night’s primetime matchup against the Oakland Raiders the Denver Broncos set new season lows in the rushing game, on each side of the ball.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Broncos rushed for a season-low 33 total yards, while the defense gave up a season-high 218 total rushing yards to their division rival. Both of those were major reasons why the Broncos lost to the Raiders 30-20 on Sunday night to fall to 6-3 on the season.
Even though the Raiders had one of the most prolific passing offenses in the NFL coming into the Week 9 matchup, their game plan early and often was to attack Denver’s run defense. The Raiders ran 43 times in the game, compared to only 31 passing attempts, and had already eclipsed their season average in rushing yards per game (116) by halftime (124).
While the Raiders had a three-headed rushing combination of Latavius Murray, DeAndre Washington, and Jalen Richard, it was Murray who did the most damage to the Broncos. The fourth year back had a career game running the ball: 114 yards and a career-high three touchdowns, the most by a Raiders running back since Darren McFadden in 2010.
Going into the game the Raiders season high on the ground was 167 against the New Orleans Saints, the Broncos next opponent, and the Broncos’ season high was 157 yards given up on the ground against the Carolina Panthers opening night. It didn’t matter where the Raiders ran it they were successful, only allowing one negative-yardage play in all 43 attempts.
Although Denver’s secondary was banged up — without cornerbacks Aqib Talib and Kayvon Webster for the game — the front seven was healthy and still was manhandled by Oakland’s big offensive line. In the second half defensive end Derek Wolfe left the game and did not return with an elbow injury, but his absence had little do to with how well Oakland ran the ball.
With their most rushing yards since September 15, 2013 (226) the Raiders had no problem moving the ball on the ground, over 5 yards a carry, while the Broncos barely even tried to establish a running game.
The Broncos had season lows, by far, in carries (12) and rushing yards (33). The last time the Broncos had a worse offensive performance out of the running game was back in 2014 in a loss to the St. Louis Rams where they only managed 28 rushing yards. Denver’s previous low this season was 52 yards against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 3.
The 12 carries were divided up between Devontae Booker — 10 carries for 22 yards — and Kapri Bibbs — 2 carries for 11 yards. While neither running back looked good, neither was really given an opportunity as they were hit right around the line of scrimmage on nearly every attempt.
After the Raiders had outrushed the Broncos 124 to 23 at halftime, head coach Gary Kubiak nearly abandoned the run, only rushing a total of four times in the second half, compared to 17 passes.
Not even one week ago Kubiak stressed the importance of the running game in the offenses success. On Sunday night, not only did the offense not have the running game but also neither did the defense.
