{"id":354711,"date":"2025-09-09T17:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T17:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/354711\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T17:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T17:10:11","slug":"broncos-run-game-is-a-work-in-progress-weve-got-to-look-closely-at-what-were-doing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/354711\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos’ run game is a work in progress: ‘We\u2019ve got to look closely at what we\u2019re doing’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Denver Broncos<\/a>‘ rushing attack got off to a sluggish start against the Tennessee Titans<\/a> on Sunday before finally coming to life in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to look closely at what we\u2019re doing, and as coaches, look closely at what our strengths are,” Broncos<\/a> coach Sean Payton said of the slow start after the game. “It was good to finally be a little bit more efficient in the second half than in the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rookie running back RJ Harvey gave the team a spark with a 50-yard run<\/a> in the fourth quarter, then veteran J.K. Dobbins finished that drive with a 19-yard touchdown run<\/a>. Those two runs helped salvage an otherwise underwhelming performance for Denver’s ground game.<\/p>\n

“It was great to see those guys get the carries and keep pounding,” Payton said. “We had a couple of big ones there in the second half that really changed field positions, and also a couple of big plays that kept the clock moving. We converted some third downs more obviously in the second half, but we\u2019ll look at the tape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dobbins described his score after the game.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was an inside zone run,” Dobbins said. “I saw a hole and then, once I get a little crease, I feel like I’m a guy that’s going to take advantage of it. So that’s what I did. I had to break a tackle on the way there, but we got it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broncos quarterback Bo Nix turned the ball over three times<\/a> on Sunday and the game was close for all four quarters. Denver also went 6-of-15 on third downs, and the offense’s tough day at the office led to an inefficient run game.<\/p>\n

“I just didn\u2019t think we got into enough of a rhythm offensively in the first half to commit to running the football, to impose our will on that team,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “We turned the ball over far too much. We didn\u2019t allow drives even to get started by not converting first downs. Four turnovers is egregious, and that has to stop. When you turn the ball over four times, you don\u2019t get the privilege of running the football like that because you\u2019re not staying on the field. So it\u2019s a full team effort, we got to be better there. Thank God we have the defense we do, and we\u2019ll get it cleaned up for next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dobbins ended the day with 16 carries for 63 yards and one score, averaging 3.9 yards per carry. Harvey rushed six times for 70 yards, and his 50-yard run boosted his average to 11.7 PYC. Nix was happy to see the offense get the running game going late.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was great,” Nix said after an eventual 20-12 win<\/a>. “Those two backs at the end, they did a great job, J.K. and RJ. Explosive running. RJ had one, and then J.K. kind of just carried the ball there at the end a couple of times, got an explosive run on the touchdown. Great run. [He] broke some tackles and then just ate away the clock at the end of the game. [I] thought it was really good. Everybody in the stadium knew we were running it there at the end, and we just did a good job of getting a hat on a hat, and making some guys miss, and moving the ball and taking some clock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denver’s offense finished the day with 30 rushes for 151 yards and one touchdown with an average of 5.0 yards per carry — numbers that look better on paper than the Broncos’ offense looked for much of Sunday’s game. The offensive line and running backs finished the game strong, though, and the team will aim to carry that momentum into Week 2.<\/p>\n

Social: Follow Broncos Wire<\/a> on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter\/X<\/a>! Did you know: These 25 celebrities are Broncos fans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Broncos Wire: NFL: Broncos’ run game is a work in progress<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Denver Broncos‘ rushing attack got off to a sluggish start against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[9093,925,258,7,601,3884,6,1032,1813,526,394,2411,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-354711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennessee-titans","8":"tag-arden-key","9":"tag-bo-nix","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-j-k-dobbins","13":"tag-mike-mcglinchey","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-rj-harvey","16":"tag-sean-payton","17":"tag-tennessee","18":"tag-tennessee-titans","19":"tag-tennesseetitans","20":"tag-titans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115175451897680725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}