The postgame stat sheet showed that the Broncos rushed for 47 yards on 18 carries in Sunday’s loss to the Colts at INVESCO Field at Mile High. When analyzing the game film of the team’s first home loss of the 2010 season, Head Coach Josh McDaniels saw squandered chances for the offense to bump up its 2.6 yards per carry average.
“We had opportunities yesterday in the running game that we did not take advantage of — no question about it,” McDaniels said Monday morning. “That is not aimed at one specific player. I have said it a million times that your ability to run the ball effectively is a combination of a lot of people doing their job the right way.”
The Broncos started out hoping to run the ball against the Colts, who came into the game with the league’s worst run defense. Kyle Orton handed off to Laurence Maroney — who made his team debut Sunday — nine times in the first half, including three times from the 1-yard line after the Broncos earned a first-and-goal opportunity in the second quarter.
But the offense couldn’t crack the end zone on any of the attempts — resulting in one of three possessions in which the Broncos found the red zone and failed to come up with any points — and Maroney averaged just 1.7 yards per carry in the half.
As the second half progressed with the Broncos attempting to close their deficit, the offense largely relied on the pass. In all, Orton threw the ball 57 times, finishing with a career-high 476 passing yards.
Maroney, who was inactive last week with an injury but got the start with Knowshon Moreno out, said he felt good in his first action of the 2010 season. The sixth-year running back said he also saw plenty of room for improvement even before watching the game film himself.
“I’ve just got to be more patient,” said Maroney, who helped out in the passing game with a pair of catches for 40 yards. “The running game is definitely going to be better. I promise you that.”
Currently the Broncos rank first in the NFL in passing yards per game, but their 67 yards per game on the ground ranks them No. 30 out of the league’s 32 squads.
McDaniels said he’s finding a positive in the fact that the Broncos have cut down on negative runs this season, meaning the offensive linemen are not allowing penetration into the backfield. They had just one negative rush against the Colts.
The head coach said there are subtle improvements to be made across the board, whether it’s the running backs recognizing the hole, linemen staying on blocks or receivers getting blocks downfield.
When analyzing the game film, McDaniels said there are always plays that jump out that could’ve yielded what he called “hidden yardage.” Going forward, he remains optimistic that the team’s rushing attack is headed in the right direction.
“Once we start finishing plays as well as we start them,” McDaniels said, “I think our running game will be much improved.”
Tags: 2010, Denver Broncos, Head Coach Josh McDaniels, Laurence Maroney, Week 3
rsoup
I still think cassell is trash and dont worry chiefs will come back from the bye week and remember that they are the chiefs and start losing against starting with IND lol. Altho, with that weak run defense, chiefs could have a field day on the ground agaisnt IND.
Wow.. Offense played well…really well in the passing game..run game blah.. Defense played stellar against the Sheriff… turnovers and the run game.killed us.oh and red zone O ewwwww stinky!!!! But hey didint have any expectations on this season just wanted to see improvement..and If we get everything clicking we are gonna smoke some ppl. MCD offense makes me smile in between the 20′s and he is making Orton look like frickin A pro bowler……HMMMMMM just wish we had a runnin game…play fakes wont work forever……
GO STOP THE TEN CHRIS JOHNSON’S!!!!!!!!!!
we need a new coach/offensive coordinator dedicated to the run. better run scheme, blocking scheme and etc and just throw mcdaniels stuff out the window. everytime its running time, he calls the plays and all the run plays in the book are his. cuz if the patriot way shows us anything, the running will forever remain in flux…imo
u rite
We as Bronco fans are used to seeing a good running game over the years,and in McD’s scheme a running game is just a disguise for the passing game,just like he schemed in NE,because they’ve really never had a good running game there in a long time,just saying.
Some people say the NFL is changing to a pass oriented league,which I do agree,but c’mon man you gotta be able to run the ball sometimes.Surely all the RBs we’ve had in there this year(Moreno,Buck,Maroney)ain’t that bad,so it has to lie in the upfront blocking,but as long as Harris is out and Kuper is not 100% and Walton is a Rookie,it’ll take time to be a good running team,if that’s what McD wants,who the Hell knows what he wants tho….I don’t know if he really knows himself.All in all it’s a trying time for ALL Bronco fans,but hang in there Broncos Country,cause better times are coming our way….at least I hope so.
BFE
I don’t carry if the run game is in flux if we win 3 superbowls. But I like to see a guy get 100 yards on a game. Only time will tell if we can run.
To be honest i think our run game isnt going to get better, i been a bronco fan since electric football boards and i have never seen us be so awful at running the ball. Its embarrassing to me. As a fan we deserve more, im speaking for the fans who check this site everyday even if its offseason and the team is making it hard to try to fight for our team in arguments with family and friends about wat the broncos gonna do this year or this week. im sick and tired of our o line getting dominated like that and our defense getting shredded apart.
tav true bronco… I wouldn’t go so far to say our D is getting shredded apart but our running game does indeed suck. Our defense could do A LOT better, we’ve let our opponents put up way too many points but our running game is much worse. That’s where our red zone offense needs help. We had several great chances of getting TDs and we should have gotten them. Some of the playcalling was silly, again we had zero chance at running the ball efficiently. I love that Orton was able to handle 57 pass attempts and really only 1 INT out of all that is pretty good, he could’ve been picked off a lot more with that many passes & considering how many of them went incomplete. But if Orton is gonna be forced to throw that much each game cuz we can’t depend on our RBs to find gaps and run the dang ball, he’s gonna get worn out fast. And if they are gonna “promote” Quinn to his back-up, I sure as heck don’t want him out there throwing that ball. I don’t trust him out there, makes me nervous.
This team is frustrating to defend, sadly enough. I mean we have played the Colts practically every year and every time its like a guarantee loss for our season. Its ridiculous. One of these years, they’re gonna get it right. I’ll defend this team till I’m blue in the face regardless how frustrated & irritated they make me. We got 2 tough games coming up, one game at a time. They really need to get the running game back on track though, its pitiful. I sure hope Moreno can play next Sunday. If all Maroney is gonna get is 2 yards per gain, we got bigger issues that we originally started off with.
And I’m with you all the way BFE… better times are coming for the Broncos. That’s the only thing making me stick by this team, other than I love my home team!
Keep the faith Broncos Country… through thick AND thin fellas,
GO BRONCOS in 2010!!!!
contain chris johnson, win the turnover battle and let the offense work…were movin to 2-2 ladies and gentlemen. playoffs are still well within reach, just keep cheerin for the best team in the league!
I feel like this game maroney was not ready to come back yet from his injury because he seemed a little slow and not sure of himself. If you rewatch the game there was some pretty big holes that he just didn’t attack full speed. Overall I thought we did good on defense especially against the run which makes me fill really better about the year because we play a lot of teams with good running backs.
And why is everyone raging on mcdaniels his playing calling on Sunday was really good even the commentator Phil Sims was impressed. And that was right to go for it on fourth down. You need touchdowns not 3 points when playing the colts even look at the saint’s last year they went for an onside kick because they know you need 7 points when playing Manning. And was anyone pleasantly surprised by how good vickerson played.
This is from Lindsay Jones:
For all the problems the Broncos continue to have with their running game, particularly near the goal line, coach Josh McDaniels made one thing clear Monday: Tim Tebow is not the solution. “We’re not going to do that in short yardage,” McDaniels said. “People who mention that, I don’t know, that’s ridiculous. Snapping the ball to a shotgun QB on 3rd and one? If we can’t get a third and one some other way, we’ve got bigger problems.”
Well, duh!
You DO have bigger problems, face the facts!
You cannot get a third and one or fourth and one on any type of consistent basis ever since you have come to Denver, that’s 19 regular season games now, 27 games all together.
How much time does it take to realize that the running game you are implementing in Denver is not producing?
I’m all with TRB on this one, there is something fundamentally wrong with the running game you brought over here from N-E and some of us fans don’t like it and rightly so. I realize the running game has been just a side show in your years of coaching at N-E, I realize you buy into the fact that the NFL has become a throwing league, but for goodness sake, we still need to have a semblance of a running game to keep drives alive in short yardage and punch the ball in at the goal line, that’s elementary dear Watson!
And you’re way of doing it is not cutting it. You thought we would be fine and dandy only getting a new inside O line to run the ball since you decided in FA and the draft that we didn’t need to address the runing back situation. You even went as far as getting rid of Hillis our only legitimate powerback. So what’s the matter??? You got all your pieces in place but you can’t make it work?
Well, obviously your view of the health of the running game was flawed to start with, we did need a bigger inside O line and you did well there, but we also DID need a powerback, in fact I wanted TWO, and you ignored that, and here you are… The late last ditch addition of LenDale White should prove that fact to you, at least I hope; with a powerback we CAN get that short yard.
So what now?
What’s so far fetched as to experiment with other stuff than stubbornly punching it up the middle on short yardage when we have had no success doing it for 27 games now. You do not have the backs to do that!
Maybe using Tebow in such situation is stupid to us mere mortal fans, but that’s what he made a living with in college, it couldn’t be worse than what we currently have, could it?
Anyhow, as long as you keep hitting your head against the wall with that new inside O line and the backs we have, the odds are real good you will not get the short yardage you are expecting, even with the O line executing perfectly because your backs are ALL DANCERS on the LOS, they do not know what the word pounding means.
Time has come to re-invent yourself about this dilemna and find a solution pronto. Thank you for your time and attention, LOL.
Even mere mortal DP sports writer Klis thinks Tebow in short yardage would be an option. This is what he answered someone in his mailbag who was asking why not use Tebow in the red zone since we have so many darn problems in it:
I’m with you on using Tim Tebow in the red zone and short-yardage situations. His strength as a quarterback is the pass/run option. This is a nice weapon to have in the cramped red-zone quarters.
Yet McD sits there on his island, happy to ignore the obvious and rule however he pleases. I honestly hope it works for the sake of our Broncos.
About Tebow in short yardage McD says:
“People who mention that, I don’t know, that’s ridiculous.”
So Klis, people and I are making ridiculous comments, and somehow I’m proud of it, haha.
Ok, last thing about the run, remember the only time N-E had a significant contribution with the running game? It was when they acquired Dillon from the Bengals, the guy was a monster powerback, you’d think McD would remember that, but noooooo, no powerback needed.
Few things I have to get off my chest: Against a fast Colts defense, you don’t run off tackle on 4th and goal, you run it right up the fricking gut and at least try to dive over the pile if anything. 4th and 3 in the redzone, you don’t throw the dang ball into the ground, throw it up and at least give your guy a chance to make a play. We’ve got to be more effective on the ground. It is going to be the opposite of last year, everyone will know we can’t run the ball and just play the pass more. C’mon, even for McD’s system our running attack…what running attack!
Those two failed redzone conversions along with the two turnovers were the difference makers. We played ‘em well, just those types of things killed us.
Obviously Moroney wasn’t the answer and it didn’t seem to work. Why not give Tebow a shot at short yardage situations, or heck even Larsen. Something is gotta change or we’re going to be a below .500 team.
I’m happy we’re throwing deeper and opening up the passes, but we need to run the ball too.
All I gotta say, is we better be ready to contain Johnson, or it’ll be a long day for us.
McDaniels has an ego problem…why draft Tebow if you are not gonna use him…we could have used that pick on an immediate impact player, or traded it to get a couple. The quarterbacks coming out next year (5 possible first rounders) could have helped us with that issue…nonetheless the only way to get McD to do something is to suggest the exact opposite of what you want him to do. If everyone starts saying to not use Tebow, he will. If everyone says, don’t use a zone blocking scheme he will.
Interesting persective of the Colts game by Legwold (I don’t recommend it as a read for the bloggers who think we are just a couple short problems away from greatness):
Good teams, playoff teams, can beat you with Plan B. And the Colts, winners of at least 12 games in each of the past seven seasons, beat the Broncos with Plan B.
Sure, they still have the uber-QB in Peyton Manning.
The Colts were without a running game. Champ Bailey largely neutralized Wayne. Linebacker Mario Haggan and safety Brian Dawkins roughed up Clark at the line of scrimmage so much he rarely could get into his routes. So, Manning calmly looked to Austin Collie and rookie Blair White.
Collie caught 12 passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns — both over Broncos rookie Perrish Cox, who got caught in a double move each time. White made three catches, one of those for a touchdown in his first NFL game.
When Freeney and Mathis, with the Broncos’ pass protection stacked against them, finished with only one sack between them, the Colts still clogged things well enough to make the Broncos 0-of-5 in the red zone to go with only 47 yards rushing.
Last week, Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said facing a team like the Colts was good because “you can see where you are.”
And now the Broncos have seen where they are.
Hey everybody!
All I know is it takes years for an Oline to gel and achieve what the Shanahan era Olines produced. There is just to much change to that part of the Team to expect much no matter how frustrating it seems.
With Rick Dennison gone this year it’s a whole new scheme this year.
Not to mention Turner is gone and we have a new running backs coach.
So again I’m not expecting much in fact I’m prety impressed with how the Oline improved this game vs the last game. IT WILL TAKE TIME.
Here’s a suggestion, which I made last year. I would like to see Coach McDaniels take The TEAM down to Colorado Springs to The AFA and practice one day with The Falcons and run the ball every down just to play around to get inspired and learn a little better communication just before the snap. Not only does this sound fun but I think The Broncos could learn alot as well. Just a suggestion…
TIME OF POSSESSION ! ! !
GO BRONCOS ! ! !
Hate to break it to you guys out there that think we have a shot at the playoffs, we have NO shot. We will not win a game until we play San Fran and then we may not win again until late in the season. This team is weak minded, how else can you explain no being able to gain ONE yard on 4 downs! That was against the worst run D in the league who was missing two of their best players…
No pass rush and no running game and no special teams threat. The only games we will win are the ones where Orton can throw for 4 or 5 Td’s. I haven’t seen that happen yet so I’m not holding my breath. Maybe it is a blessing to go 4-12 and get a good draft pick and use it to get some linemen that can get pressure.
The running game should get better when Harris comes back. I`m not saying that Harris is the solution to our bad running game, but that he will make us better on short line goals and 3rd or fourth and short. IMO.
We have a good chance to win this weekend I think. Our Defence is playing better. We`ll win the Jets game. Were not that bad, heck we just played the Colts. That was a tall order.
Baylin…..I agree 100%,why even draft Tebow if you’re not gonna play him when we need him.At the start of the season McD said we have some packages for him,and he WOULD see playing time,I guess the play at Jacksonville was it.The guy has traded away players we needed,still has great players,but don’t know how to utilize their full potential,I for one don’t know if this guy is ready to be a HC,maybe he needs to be demoted.Just one man’s opinion that don’t mean a Helluva lot.
BFE
OC….love ya man! but who cares that Tebow got demoted he won’t play but a hand full of plays any ways and that’s the way it should be. His day will come when he gets the keys to his father’s car it just isn’t now.
With that said, did anyone ever consider that it could be perfomance based? Last I heard the public wasn’t attending practices any longer. Case in point…I live in Illinois. Prior to the Bears/Packers Monday game last night the starting NT (Tommy Harris) a pro bowler mind you, was deactivated before the start of the game. Wanna know why? Performance in Practice. If you watched the game last night, did you see Bowman get pulled out of the secondary? Tim Jennings (who balled last night) was put in. Know why? Performance issues.
My point is it’s easy to sit back and watch Sunday game day football and make statements after the fact but decisions have to be made prior to kickoff.
Also, this whole running thing. It’s bigger than me or anyone else on this site understands. I really, really like our OLine. Young and coming along. You can’t tell me they own part of this problem. Pass protecting they are phenominal. Run blocking still needs some work. RB’s are not immune to this either. Are they not seeing the hole? are they making to many cuts? etc….Tell me JMac doesn’t see that to. So what do we want? The quick fix! It doesn’t work like that.
In my opinion JMac has taken Kyle Orton and turned him into one of the most accurate/and effecient QB’s in the LEAGUE! Red zone? Yes issues but I’ll leave on this note.
I could give to craps how this team moves the ball from 20 yard line to 20 yard line. We have PROVEN this is not a problem at all and that’s with a dismal running game. Fix the red zone and all of a sudden it’s a WHOLE new ball game.
Ben, I hear you brother! I love the positive it’s how I’m wired. However, Bay and others bring up great points. No where will you find fans that want to “talk” about the Broncos with passion. Agree/dissagree….doesn’t matter it’s still passion! What I won’t do is pull the “i told you so” card after a loss. Because if we win that game (and we most certainly could of) I have a feeling it’s a different style. We didn’t so critisism is expected.
Sorry I was rambling….:)
GO GET EM’ BOYS!
Monodono
Great to here from you, was wondering if alot of regular names i used to since once upon a time had just faded into oblivion. You do bring up good points about Rich Dennison and Bobby Turner. I just personally think a NE coach runs the ball as something to do between passes lol.
BA
True, they won superbowls that way. But they had tom brady and a team that didnt make mistakes.
all,
you know what the funny thing is, all week when it was time to talk about the colts, i was like, this sounds like a week for a Tebow package since they have a weak run defense, and since he can pass well as well. And then we activate Quinn who DEFINITELY wont play. At least Tebow would have a package and MIGHT get on the field but we knew quinn wouldnt. I thought the defense did well, came out doing what they planned to do, bend but not break and give up only FGs, but they got tired early because our O wasnt eating up clock and not converting downs.
We are as far from greatness as we were the last year of shanahans last year. Nothing has changed really. Cutler threw that many times in shanahans last year as well but at least shanahan had the excuse of 8 injured RBs. We made the move for progress and yea yea i know it will take time……time runs out eventually like shanny found out. Point being, we have to run effectively, not play sloppy football, not shoot ourselves in the foot, and take care of the ball. Sounds simple when you say it (which is why some fans think we are not far from greatness), but the discipline and personel required to make it work is not easily attainable… but nevertheless, GO BRONCOS.
Marshawn Lynch is back on the trading block…any thoughts?
Hey guys, other than Olap, OC and I, everyone has missed the new Cooper blog “red zone…colts blues” and the Coopster is feeling bad about it, LOL, to access it you must go into the news blog page and it will be the second one down in the right column.
And he has a great Tampa Bay locker room story…
1nOnlyTRB
Hey Brotha, ya I kinda fell off the blogosphere for a bit. I lost a computer, I got a new boat, and my Grandaughter had another surgery.
Things got a little crazy for a while but were rolling again, you’ll see me around.
TIME OF POSSESSION ! ! !
GO BRONCOS ! ! !
Hey guys,
I’m new to contributing to the blogs so I’m going a little crazy with it right now. I dfended McD a lot on the “going for it” article but I have to agree with everyone here. We need a someone who can shove the ball down your throat. White could’ve been that guy and it’s really a shame we won’t get to find out this year. Well hopefully McDaniels still has some moves left to make and we find a big mean guy somewhere. I agree with Baylin that we should give Brown some snaps against Tenessee. Certainly can’t get much worse! Go Broncos!
Payton Hillis has 144 yards in one game. More than the Broncos RB’s combined for the season…nuff said.
The running game will improve, calm down, first off it cant get much worse secondly, im hopin & prayin’ that a Moreno/Moroney combo can git er done, yeah it would be nice to see if Larsen could pick up a first down or two, or at least get a chance, but we need not hit the panic button yet My BroncoManiacs Just sit in the buggy see if we can get the M & M’s going, Dear God Bless Our Broncos