Taking a deeper look Vance Joseph's somewhat-controversial philosophy

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — It all started on Monday night, when the Denver Broncos blew a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead to the Kansas City Chiefs.

With the lead, and a stable of backs that were averaging more than seven yards per carry, the Broncos only ran the ball one time after taking a 23-13 lead with 12:52 remaining in the game.

Now, Denver only had the ball for a total of three plays in the fourth quarter while they still had the lead, but that’s part of the problem. Two of those three plays were passes. For the game, despite their immense success, the combination of Lindsay and Freeman only totaled 20 carries, with Freeman only getting eight of those while averaging an eye-popping 8.4 yards per pop.

After the game, Vance Joseph was asked if he wished he had run the ball more in general.

“Our offensive line has been really good all year,” he began. “Both young backs, they ran downhill. They had 70-plus yards apiece. They ran downhill, but you score points by throwing the football. We ran the ball to control the game. You throw the ball to score. That’s never going to stop.”

The comment drew a lot of criticism considering how well the Broncos ran the ball and the fact that on their two touchdown drives in the game, they ran the ball 10 times for 81 yards and both touchdowns.

Generally speaking, it’s not uncommon for a coach to be defensive of his assistants after a loss. After all, they are a team just as much as the players are, and you rarely see a player throw their teammates under the bus. It wasn’t shocking that Joseph didn’t directly criticize the play calling of offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave.

On Wednesday, though, after being asked if he was concerned about Kareem Hunt’s 6.4 yards per carry against his defense, Joseph went back to that philosophy.

“That was part of the plan,” he explained. “We knew we were going to play more shell coverage on first and second down just to bleed some running yards and keep the passing yards to a minimum. I thought the plan was excellent. Sometimes you’re going to bleed running yards because of the passing team you’re playing. The running game doesn’t equal points; the passing game is where the points come from. We knew that going into the game, that was more the plan.”

A few questions later, there was an interesting back and forth between Joseph and the media.

First, he was asked if he could explain his thoughts on that the pass-to-score philosophy.

“It takes a lot of runs to make a lot of yards,” he said. “They can run 15 times and make 50 yards and they’re satisfied with that. If you average four yards a pop, you’re satisfied with that. Passing, passing shots, passing chunks are where the points are scored. In this league, you watch how teams score, it’s really in the passing game. The running game, once you get up or to control the game, having the running game is important, but to score points and to make big plays, that’s through the passing game, that’s never going to change in this league.”

“But you scored two rushing touchdowns,” one media member responded.

“Yes, yes, but from the red zone, from the red zone,” the coach responded. “I agree with that, but just trust me on that one.”

“Are you a little different, though, as an offense?” He was then asked. “You run the ball better than a lot of teams. Are you built a little different than some of these other offenses?”

“Well, we’re averaging 5.6, so that speaks to the O-line and that speaks to the running game itself. Hopefully, we can stay with the run more often and control and win more games.”

Now, it should be noted that Joseph is not the first coach to have this philosophy. Way back in the 70s and early 80s the Patriots had a coach by the name of Ray Erhardt who was famous for the phrase “Pass to score, run to win.” His idea was centered around running to set up the pass, hitting the big passes to score, then running the clock out on the ground.

On Monday, the Broncos appeared to execute the first two phases of that plan, but they failed in the final phase while also seeming a little too eager to get to the passing part of the plan. And, in all reality, the numbers say they ran to score. On their five scoring drives, they ran the ball 16 times for 137 yards (8.5 YPC) and two touchdowns. On their five non-scoring drives, they only ran the ball five times for 22 yards.

On Wednesday, BSN Denver asked Jets head coach Todd Bowles if he subscribes to the “Pass to score, run to control” philosophy.

“If it works,” he said bluntly. “Every game doesn’t go like that. Sometimes you get down in points and sometimes have to do other things. You subscribe to how to win, regardless of whether it’s run or pass.”

If we’re being honest, this is what fans want to hear. Every coach has their philosophies, but those philosophies have to be malleable. There isn’t really a case to be made that the Broncos ran the ball the right amount against the Chiefs. The numbers say that three straight runs at any point all-but guaranteed a first down if not much more.

In Joseph’s defense, he’s right in the sense that they did have chunk pass plays on both touchdown drives. With that being said, the play calling in the fourth quarter did not lend its hand to executing the entire “Pass to score, run to win (control)” philosophy.

The final piece to this puzzle is Case Keenum. If the Broncos are going to stand by needing to pass the ball to score points, they are going to need more from their 18-million-dollar man. The good news is that on scoring drives, he was great, going 9-of-13 for 125 yards, with the fantastic running game helping him to get big completions. The bad news is that during the rest of the game, on drives in which the pass was more heavily featured, the quarterback went just 12-of-20 with an interception.

While it looks like they could be close, as it stands in Week 5, the Broncos are still in search of the right balance.