When the punter has almost as many offensive yards as a team’s rushing attack, that typically doesn’t bode well for that team. It either means that the punter had the game of his life, or the running game had no life.
On Sunday, the latter was true for the Denver Broncos as they fell to the Tennessee Titans, 13-10.
In what has been a wildly inconsistent rushing attack the entire season, the Broncos put up by far their worst performance running the ball on Sunday: 18 yards on nine carries. Punter Riley Dixon himself had 16 passing yards on a trick play, just two yards shy of Denver’s performance on the ground for the entire game. For a coach that prides himself
For a coach that prides himself on running the ball, Gary Kubiak called the performance “frustrating.”
“It’s really disappointing,” the head coach said to KOA. “We played really poorly in the first quarter. We missed two third down and six inches…offensively we did nothing in the first half.”
Thankfully for the offense, Trevor Siemian and the passing attack heated up in the second half, finishing with 330 passing yards on 52 attempts. However, there was no rejuvenation on the ground. In fact, the running attack regressed, only rushing the ball four times for six yards in a comeback attempt that fell short.
“I’m thinking of one or two runs in the second half—I know one of them on first and ten lost five yards in the red zone,” Kubiak said. “Obviously, there wasn’t much commitment to the run, we are trying to get back in the game by throwing it a lot, that’s what we were doing best at the end of the game.”
After losing C.J. Anderson to the injured reserve in Week 7, Denver searched for any spark in the running game. Just when they thought they found hope last week in Kapri Bibbs, he joined Anderson on IR.
Then, on Monday, Kubiak and the Broncos thought they might have struck gold by signing veteran Justin Forsett. Kubiak was confident that his former back would bring “juice” to the running game. Unfortunately, any “juice” that Forsett brought was quickly lost on the first carry of his Broncos career when he fumbled the ball.
“Obviously you don’t want to put the ball on the ground,” the head coach said. “But [Forsett] was comfortable enough to go in and help us pick up some blitzes and play.”
Going into Week 14, the Broncos had 26 fewer rushing yards per game without Anderson in the lineup, falling from just over 111 yards per game to just over 84 yards per game since Week 7. Against the Titans, the Orange & Blue couldn’t even get to a quarter of that subpar mark.
In the final three games of the regular season, it seems like the Broncos don’t have any other options when it comes to the running game.
“I mean, we need [Forsett] to play, we got [Booker] and him,” he said. “I’m encouraged by what he can do moving forward, and like I said we need to protect the football, he knows that.”
Now in the final stretch, Denver has to run with the cards they were dealt, but it certainly appears they are holding a losing hand.
