Denver Broncos: 3 Takeaways vs. Bills in Week 3
By Bruce Matson
3. Run Forrest Run
The Broncos went away from their typical approach by keeping the distribution between run and pass play fairly even. In this game, they broke their typical mold by relying heavily on the pass. Denver executed 23 run plays to 40 pass attempts. 17 of those run attempts were from the running backs, Jamaal Charles and C.J. Anderson.
You would think, since the Broncos were behind during the latter portions of the game, that they needed to pass the ball to get ahead. That is true, but the team went away from the run early in the first half. The Broncos only had 11 total rush attempts with nine of them going to the running backs going into halftime.
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It wasn’t like the run game was failing for the Broncos. Before halftime, Charles had four carries for 16 yards and a touchdown and Anderson had five carries for 34 yards, resulting for 6.8 yards per carry. Granted the majority of their yards came off of big plays, but the team was able to churn out yards on the ground.
The game was tight in the first half with the score tied at 13 going into halftime. There was no reason to abandon the run, because the team didn’t have a deficit to make up.
Just by judging from the passing targets, it appears the game plan for the Broncos was to take advantage of Buffalo’s inexperienced rookie cornerback Tre’Davious White. This worked, but the added passing volume made it hard for the Broncos offense to control the clock.
If Denver could’ve relied on the run game a little more in this game, then we might have seen a different outcome, because the Broncos would’ve been able to manage the time of possession a little better and grind out some of the tough yards between the tackles with their running backs.