Kubiak’s solution to abysmal ground game: Run more

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — A day after the franchise’s worst rushing performance since December 12, 2013, Denver Broncos head coach and offensive play-caller Gary Kubiak had a different take than most on how to address the struggles on the ground.

Instead of abandoning it for the remainder of the season and putting the entire offense on the shoulders of Trevor Siemian and the passing attack, Kubiak decided to double down. After rushing for just 18 total yards on nine carries against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, Kubiak said he still had hope.

“Oh definitely [the running game is] fixable,” he said definitively. “First off, you got to do it. Yesterday, in my opinion, we needed to throw the ball to have a chance to win, so I’m the one who started throwing the heck out of the ball.”

That he did. For a system that prides itself on running the ball, Denver was anything but balanced, dropping back to pass 52 times to only nine rushing attempts. Although Denver had 64 total offensive snaps, according to Kubiak, it wasn’t enough to spark a running game.

“The biggest thing is the snaps,” the coach said. “Yesterday, in the first half, I think we had 22 snaps as an offensive football team. They had the ball, and we didn’t do anything with it when we had it. We got to get snaps to have things happen. We went and found snaps in the second half, made plays, moved the ball.”

Even though 94.8 percent of the offensive yards came through the air, Kubiak put his confidence behind the entire offense saying, “I believe in what we are doing.”

A key to the offensive success that has been stressed all year by both players and coaches has been moving the chains and staying on the field. One way to instantly kill that formula, according to the coach, is negative plays.

“The thing we got to do is we got to eliminate negative plays,” Kubiak said. “Too many negative plays, negatives going backward. I think we had three holding calls on three different running plays out of nine or ten, put the ball on the ground another play. Just too many negative things. We got to get rid of those for us to keep moving the ball forward.”

As for the guys carrying the ball, the Broncos don’t have much of a choice after losing both C.J. Anderson and Kapri Bibbs to the injured reserve earlier in the year.

“If you are asking me if Devontae [Booker] needs a break? We don’t have that luxury; we got to go,” Kubiak said. “It’s crunch time, and everybody’s got to buckle down, guys playing hurt and nicked up, like Trevor yesterday… A lot has been asked of Devontae, but he’s got to step to the plate and keep going.”

Even though Booker has averaged only 2.7 yards per carry since Anderson was placed on IR after Week 7, Kubiak still has confidence that the rookie will step up in the stretch run.

“I believe in Book. I think he’s a good football player; he’s working hard,” he said. “I think he’s got some big-play ability in him. Obviously, we need to go get some more out of him. [Sunday] touching the ball three times it’s hard for me to sit here and say he had a lot of opportunities. But he’s got to continue to go.”

Along with Booker, the only other true running back on the team is Justin Forsett, who they picked up just a week ago. Despite fumbling on his first carry as a Bronco, there were plenty of positives to take away from his first game in orange and blue. However, not many were in the running game as he ran for 17 yards on six attempts.

“[He] did a lot of good things in the game, picked up some blitzes, made some plays for us,” Kubiak said. “I think he can help us here down the stretch. Nobody feels worse about the turnover, but he also contributed to a lot of good things in the game.”

Despite struggles in the run game since Anderson went down, it seems as if Kubiak on the Broncos will stick to their guns and try to find a ground game in the final three weeks of the season. Their next opportunity comes against the class of the AFC, the 10-2 New England Patriots on Sunday.