ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — “Terrible,” “pathetic” and “frustrating” were a few of the PG-rated words used in the Denver Broncos locker room by players to describe the offense’s performance just after the team’s stunning 23-10 defeat to the now 1-5 New York Giants.
In a game in which the Broncos’ offense had a season-high three turnovers and a season-low 46 rushing yards, positives from the Sunday shocker were few and far between.
But like any successful team—or really any realm of life—learning from one’s own mistakes is crucial to becoming better for the future. And that’s precisely what the Broncos’ offense looks to do to turn an embarrassing Week 6 performance into a drastically better Week 7, starting with the game plan.
“We have to run the football better. That’s our formula,” head coach Vance Joseph said when trying to dissect what went wrong against the Giants. “Our formula is different. It’s run, it’s play-pass and that’s where [Trevor Siemian’s] been more efficient for this offense. That part hurt us [against the Giants], not running the football well.”
Entering Week 6, Denver had the third-best rushing attack in the league, averaging over 140 yards per game on the ground. The Broncos’ 46 rushing yards against the Giants were partly due to poor execution, but also a lack of opportunity. Offensive coordinator Mike McCoy called 58 pass plays to only 17 rushing plays—stacking the odds against both the pass and run game.
“To throw that many passes, for a young quarterback, it’s sometimes not good for a young quarterback. Even though he had success doing it and he threw for a ton of yards,” Joseph said when speaking on the game plan. “Trevor’s a young quarterback still, so when our running game is clicking, that helps him to play in a more relaxed form.”
In Denver’s three wins, the Broncos have ran the ball more times than they’ve thrown—an average of 36 rushing attempts to 32 drop backs—while maintaining a balanced offense. However, in their two losses, they’ve averaged only 20 rushing attempts to 50.5 passing attempts—completely getting away from Joseph’s run-first “formula.”
Fortunately for the Broncos, their next opponent couldn’t be better suited to get them back on track. The Los Angeles Chargers’ defense isn’t short on talent, however, it’s mostly all centered around stopping the pass, and not the run. Through the first six weeks of the season, the Chargers have the fourth-best pass defense and yet the worst rush defense, giving up an average of 152.5 yards on the ground.
“We definitely got to improve in every aspect,” Charger’s pass rushing specialist Melvin Ingram emphasized to the Denver media when talking about Los Angeles’ run defense. “That is something we got to improve in.”
In the team’s first matchup of the year in Week 1, the Broncos took advantage of this imbalance, rushing for 140 yards and only throwing for a net total of 181, resulting in a 24-21 Denver victory. This, along with the fact that Denver failed to even try to run the ball against the Giants, will almost certainly make for a run-first and run-heavy game plan on Sunday against the Chargers with Joseph all but confirming that.
“Our game plan will change some because each week it’s different. We’re a running first football team,” he said as the team prepared for the Chargers. “That’s always our first goal is running the football. That’s our plan. It gives us short third downs. Let’s us get back to our formula of running the football and throwing play-pass and getting back to short third downs.”
If McCoy follows Joseph’s wishes, C.J. Anderson and Co. will be able to put last weeks “pathetic” performance on the ground—as C.J. himself said—far in the rearview mirror.
