“Keep pounding the rock”: Resilience key to Broncos breakthrough

The Denver Broncos learned a valuable lesson in the 21-13 defeat against the San Diego Chargers in week six, and like any great team, they made the proper adjustments.

After completely abandoning the run in the second half against the Chargers — only seven rushes compared to 39 passes — the Broncos kept pounding the ball, even after a slow start.

“Honestly the running game is a patient game, you have to be extremely resilient and that’s something that we were able to accomplish,” left tackle Russell Okung said after the Broncos 27-9 victory over the Houston Texans on Monday night. “We were confident about the process and we knew it would take hold and it was evident in the second half.”

In the first quarter, the Broncos only managed three rushing attempts as they failed to convert one first down in the quarter. However, instead of jumping ship like in past games, the coaching staff continued to attack on the ground and let the offensive line change the narrative.

“Football is a game of resiliency, you can’t harp on one quarter or one half, you got to go out there and you got to play four,” right guard Max Garcia said. “Whenever we hit adversity we have to learn to be resilient and that’s what got us through last year and that’s got to be the same mentality and mindset for this year.”

Similarly to last year, that resiliency carried the Broncos to a dominating performance on the ground — finishing with 190 yards rushing on 35 attempts for an impressive 5.4 average.

“We didn’t wait for the game to come to us, we took it to them and that’s how we need to play every week. Don’t wait for chances, just go make the plays and be playmakers, it took everybody,” Garcia said.

While the entire offense showed resiliency, there isn’t a better individual example than rookie running back Devontae Booker. After fumbling the ball on his first career carry in week one, head coach Gary Kubiak told him to keep working because the team would need him later in the year. On Monday night, Booker was called upon and delivered rushing a team-high 17 times for 83 yards.

“After that first carry that I had against Carolina, I put that behind me right away,” he said. “[I’m] starting to get more carries and the more carries that I get the more and more I start heating up and getting into a rhythm and that’s what happened tonight.”

Booker wasn’t the only running back to strike fire against the Texans, either. Starter C.J. Anderson had 107 rushing yards despite only getting 16 carries. Instead of choosing one running back over the other, the Broncos know they will be at their best using the formula they did on Monday.

“The sky’s the limit for our offense with both of us in there doing the things that we are doing running the ball,” Booker said. “It makes it harder for defenses to take one of us away and when we keep switching us in and out, we can make some good things happen.”

Although the energy in the locker room post game was entirely positive, the elder statesman of the offensive line said the key to maintaining this success was realizing how much better they could still become.

“Keep eating humble pie, realize that it’s hard to get there and it’s a process. We made a lot of mistakes; there are tons of things we can do to get better. Keep our head down and keep working hard,” Okung said.

The 18-point victory over former quarterback Brock Osweiler and his Texans was certainly sweet for the Broncos, but the most important takeaway from the win could have been understanding never to abandon the run.