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The AFC North and one of its members, the Cincinnati Bengals, are known to be a rough bunch bent on physical, balanced football yet through two games the Denver Broncos’ hosts Sunday has not looked the part.
They have been pass-heavy and struggled to get the ground game going on offense yet the Broncos are preparing for the Bengals based on reputation more than recent play.
“Any team, if they can run on you, they will keep running so I mean our job is to stop the run,” Broncos safety Darian Stewart said Thursday. “That is what we look forward to doing this weekend, first and foremost. We want to make them pass.”
The Bengals, last season’s 13th-best rushing offense, has played two football games with little help from their ground game. They will enter Sunday’s contest at Paul Brown Stadium averaging just 51.5 rush yards per game (31st in the NFL) while throwing for 345 yards per game (2nd in the NFL.)
They have handed the ball off just 19 times in week one and 18 times in week two while attempting 30 and 54 passes in those contests, respectively. Despite the trend, the Broncos believe the Bengals will try, at least in the early going, to be two-dimensional.
“I think they started off slow last year and toward the end of the year, they finished strong,” Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips admitted Thursday. “Of course, they are talking about running more and doing a better job of running so I know they are emphasizing it and we also emphasize stopping the run but they have two really good backs and a really veteran, good offensive line, only got one new starter on the line this year.”
Many people forget about the Broncos impressive run-stopping ability while the “No Fly Zone” grabs headlines. Last season, they finished as the third-best rushing defense in the NFL. They will enter Sunday as the 24th-best run defense, allowing 120 rushing yards per game thus far.
The idea behind stopping the run first has been paramount for this unit as it pushes the opposition into a “must-throw” situations as the game proceeds.
“I think we prepare the same,” linebacker Todd Davis said Thursday of the team’s game plan for the Bengals. “We will just be ready to play the run and we’ll be able to play the pass because we go the ‘No Fly Zone.’ We are ready for both.”
It is the Broncos’ balanced attack on defense that Davis believes separates them.
“That balance is great. I think that is what most teams don’t have. They try to take away the run, it goes to the pass and they are left in the air. With us, we can focus on the run and we got the best backend in football so it allows us to play the run heavy because we are covered in the back.”
The Bengals sit at 1-1 with two close contests. They defeated the New York Jets, 23-22 in week one and the fell to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-16 in week two. In the two games combined they have only six rushing first downs and are averaging just 2.78 carries.
They have run the ball 17 times in the first half and 20 times in the second half of those contests, proving that despite trying to maintain a balance throughout both games, they remained ineffective. Von Miller, known for his pass-rush but also a student of the game, does not expect those two performances to deter the Bengals.
“I mean, they got great running backs. I think they will come out the first quarter and run the ball for sure,” Miller said adamantly Thursday. “You have to be able to run the ball. You can get away with passing the ball for a long time but to be a great team, you have to run the ball and Cincinnati, they are a great team. I expect them to be balanced at the beginning of the game.”
What Miller may have been alluding to in his last sentence is that if the Broncos stop the run, as they plan to, the Bengals will be forced to play the Broncos game. Last season when these two teams met in Denver, on December 28, the Bengals found some running room, tallying 108 yards on 33 attempts. There is no doubt they will try to get back on a similar track in their first home game of 2016.
Despite their flashy reputation, the Broncos are more than a team that rushes the passer and forces interceptions. They are out to prove they can shut down the talented backfield duo of the Bengals.
