Denver Broncos O-line not as bad as you think

Don’t look now but there is hope for the Denver Broncos offensive line yet.

It’s not as dire as people make it out to be. It’s not great either (or even good) but no one has taken that leap. The point is: There’s hope for the Broncos offensive line.

We caught glimpses of that on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings. For the first time all season, the Denver running game showed signs of life. The five guys who make the zone-blocking system work gave us reason to believe they can, in fact, run block.

It doesn’t hurt to have a 72-yard touchdown run from Ronnie Hillman, but that could finally be the play that gives the line and offense confidence. “Hey, we really can do this.” Hillman was untouched. If Denver ran that play in practice on Wednesday, it couldn’t have been any better.

Ronnie Hillman 72 yards to the HOUSE. Not fair. #MINvsDEN http://t.co/HVFX67UP5o

— NFL (@NFL) October 4, 2015

The Broncos finished with 24 carries for 144 yards. There were still struggles, but in an eventual game-winning drive, the offense showed what it can look like. Both Hillman and C.J. Anderson gained positive yardage with their carries, close to eight yards per rush on that drive.

Peyton Manning was able to work in the pass plays to Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas, who should have caught that third-down pass for a touchdown.

It happened because of the offensive line.

Michael Schofield playing as well as he did in his first game in the NFL speaks volumes.

“First off, for Michael, I think for a guy that played his first NFL football game, I thought that he played really well,” Gary Kubiak said on Monday. “There are always going to be things that you have to get better at. He got called for a couple of penalties, just some alignment stuff that you have to go through to get better. I liked his effort and I liked the way that he got to the second level. You can tell that he hasn’t worked much with (guard Louis] Lou (Vasquez) just with them picking up some stunts and doing things that we have to improve upon.”

Ryan Harris playing as well as he did at left tackle for the first time also speaks volumes.

“For Ryan, anytime that you ask a guy to flip sides like that in one week is asking a lot,” Kubiak said. “I think that he went out there and held his own.”

The NFL is all about finding what teams do well. The plays, the scheme and even the players. When you find what works, you don’t mess with it. You find ways to build off it and make it consistent.

Coaches like to say players don’t use their job because of injury, but it happens. Even if Ty Sambrailo is good to go this week against the Oakland Raiders, Gary Kubiak and his offensive staff need to leave the offensive line alone.

Allow those five guys to build off what they did against the Vikings, which has been atrocious up until Sunday. Allow them the chance to build off of it. To gain even more confidence.

Give Schofield a full week. Give Harris a full week. Give those five guys a full week to practice and learn what the others will do.

“We played hard up front and we ran the ball better,” Kubiak said. “I thought that our effort was good. We can always do things better and we’ll have to do things better, but I thought that we held up with what we went through.”

Kubiak and Manning have said this will take time. That offense is a work in progress. With the absurd, historic numbers the Broncos offense has put up the last three years, it’s hard to remain patient. But it’s not as dire as some would leave you to believe.

After Sunday, there is hope yet for the Denver offensive line.