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Denver Native (Carol)
01-07-2016, 10:32 PM
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- It isn't news that the Broncos' ground game was cooking on Sunday. It actually has been one of the league's most effective rushing attacks for quite some time.

Since returning from a Week 7 bye, the Broncos rank sixth in the league in rushing yardage per game and eighth in average per carry. Although there have been some consistency issues and some hiccups -- particularly in the 15-12 loss to the Raiders in Week 14 -- over the long haul, the running game has started to look like what Head Coach Gary Kubiak and Offensive Coordinator Rick Dennison hoped that it could be.

It took some evolution to get there. Working under center and emphasizing two-tight end sets to generate more outside power in run blocking helped. But in the last two games, the Broncos have finally succeeded in capitalizing off the inside space created through the use of three-wide receiver sets, creating situations where the receivers are able to draw cornerbacks and safeties away, which opens up lanes on each side.

One perfect example of this came on C.J. Anderson's 27-yard run in the third quarter that moved the Broncos to the San Diego 23-yard-line.

rest - http://www.denverbroncos.com/news-and-blogs/article-1/BMW-Ultimate-Performance-The-emerging-ground-game/ebcea98d-50b3-4418-9dbe-3ece901d601b

Joel
01-08-2016, 12:42 AM
Yards/game mean little: It's been a result rather than cause of second half leads since Jim Thorpe and Red Grange played. But a top ten rushing AVERAGE is big "cause" for hope, because that's PRECISELY how to remove pressure (in every sense) from whomever's our QB. It's what we lacked at the end of regulation in the 2012 playoffs and throughout the 2013 SB: We can't beat a whole good TEAM with JUST PFM; that just tells them whom to sell out on stopping, and that was the ball game.

It's also encouraging to do it with a pro set rather than 2 TE (or the jumbos employed to get decent running yards last year, at the expense of retaining only a pair of receiving threats: One-dimensional offense is bad WHICHEVER dimensions are wholly absent.) I still wish our whole team had another full season and offseason of experience with both our new offensive and defensive philosophies, and could just play the game they know, mauling all comers. But it already looks much better.

BroncoJoe
01-08-2016, 11:32 AM
Between our two RB's, here's the regular season totals:

359 attempts // 1,583 yards // 12 TD's // 4.4 APC // 99 YPG

If that was one RB, those are pretty good stats. I have no problem with the two back setup. Keeps both fresh.