How did the Denver Broncos manage to completely change how the team was running the ball against the Cleveland Browns?
Even though a Sean Payton-led team typically boasts a strong and dependable rushing attack. And with the success this team has had so far this season, you’d think the Denver Broncos would have one of those.
They do not.
Instead, Denver mostly relies on flashes of greatness that can boost drives but are (mostly) unable to drive the ball down the length of the field while relying on their backs and offensive line to do the work. There’s a reason they have now gone 30 straight games without an individual rushing for 100+ yards.
This was the case on Monday night. Until the second half rolled along. Then things changed for the better. And that rushing attack in the second half is a big reason Denver walked out with a massive win in primetime.
But how did the Broncos fix the rushing attack in the span of just 20 minutes? Let’s see if we can find out.
Stat crunch
First half
The Broncos ran the ball 12 times. Jaleel McLaughlin got the majority of carries with five, while Javonte Williams got four, and Marvin Mims, Audric Estime, and Michael Burton all got one.
They gained 32 yards (2.7 ypc) with 13 yards before contact (1.1 per carry) and 19 yards after contact (1.6 per carry). Five of the rushes went for positive yards, three went for no gain, two went for a loss, and two went for touchdowns.
They mostly ran the ball behind the right tackle (four times).
The most common play they ran was Duo (4) with a variance of Wham once. They also ran Power three times (one with a FB lead) as their second-most popular play. They gained an average of 5.6 yards per carry when running Duo. They also had their longest rush of the half (12 yards) and most yards before contact (eight yards) and after contact (six yards) while running Duo.
Their two touchdowns came off of Duo Wham (Williams) and FB Dive (Burton).
Second half
The Broncos ran the ball 11 times with McLaughlin getting all but two carries, with Estime taking those.
They gained 70 yards on the ground (6.4 ypc) with 40 yards before contact (3.6 per carry) and 30 yards after contact (2.7 per carry). Nine of those rushes went for positive yards and two of them went for a loss. None of them went for no gain.
Denver kept things mixed and unpredictable when it came to where they were attacking. They didn’t run the ball more than twice to a certain spot.
Once again, the most common play Denver ran was Duo, which they ran five times. Besides that, they did not run another play more than once. Meaning they ran seven different plays on 11 rushes.
Crack Toss resulted in the longest rush of the half (18 yards), thanks to the vision of McLaughlin to make a massive cut back. Besides that, Inside Zone resulted in the longest rush of the half (17 yards) and the most yards before contact (12 yards).
They scored zero rushing touchdowns in the second half.
The difference
The stats match what my eyes saw. The Broncos came out in the second half ready to ride the hot hand of McLaughlin and he came to play. The offensive line got guys moving and were making plays on the second level.
Denver’s ability to keep the defense guessing was a huge contributor to their success. They ran the ball out of a handful of formations and gave the Cleveland Browns defense seven different plays to account for that hit every part of the field. All McLaughlin had to do with hit the open gap with a head of steam. And he was dang good at making guys miss with his yards after contact.
But a huge shift that must be highlighted, and I think the stat that defines the second half, is the yards before contact. In the first half the Broncos had just 1.1 yards before contact. In the second half they had 3.6 yards before contact. 2.5 is a massive number.
The offensive line had an incredible amount of success in the second half against a defensive front that was playing well most of the game.
Film breakdown
Second rush of the first half goes to McLaughlin on Duo Right, and this is just a phenomenal example of how to block and run Duo.
Mike McGlinchey buries the DE, Quinn Meinerz passes off the DT to Wattenberg and gets up to the playside of the backer, and Wattenberg does a great job of getting across the face of the DT. Ben Powers gets up to the playside of his backer and Garett Bolles handles the backside DT.
And then you have McLaughlin that rides the blocks and waits for his opening, and when he sees it he hits the lane with a burst of speed to pick up 12 yards.
Also let’s note Nate Adkins working well against Myles Garrett on the backside.
The first touchdown of the game comes off of a formation that I was begging the Broncos to run when on the goal line and something I’m a big proponent of when it comes to running the ball near the end zone.
The Broncos run more of a spread formation with their Twins set, but they still have a TE in on the backside of the run. They are running Inside Zone Wham Weak which allows for all but the playside DE to be double teamed. It’s all about getting two hats on one and not to worry about getting up to the second level as much. As long as you take care of the defensive line, the linebackers will get sucked up into the traffic and will open up a lane to the endzone.
And then you have Adkins coming across the play for the kick out block on the end man on the line of scrimmage, allowing for Williams to make the cut back to the C gap and waltz in for the score. Good blocking, good running, good play design.
Now here comes what’s probably the worst run Denver has all game.
They’re trying to run Inside Zone Right, and you can tell that off of McLaughlin running left to right in the gun, Bolles with an iso block on the backside, and the playside four moving laterally.
The issue here is that McGlinchey just get’s flat-out beat off of the ball. The hole is there in the backside A gap between Powers and Wattenberg. But with McGlinchey getting beat inside, McLaughlin is forced back to where the backer that shot the backside B gap is.
McGlinchey takes too flat of a path and has no inside leverage on the DE. If he makes a move at least slightly upfield, then that closes off the inside and the DE wouldn’t be able to slant the way he did. The easiest thing McGlinchey could do is get vertical and force the DE to go outside, and then wash him up field.
The first running play of the second half is Duo Left out of Singleback and McLaughlin makes Myles Garrett pay for getting too far up field.
The offensive line does a fantastic job of displacing the entire defensive box of the Browns laterally, and when Garrett gets a few yards up field, this allows for McLaughlin to make that cut off of McGlinchey and collect a huge gain to keep the ball moving towards midfield.
This is great.
This is the first time this season (to my knowledge) that the Broncos run this play. I’m calling it CG Power. It looks like it could be CG Counter, but that would usually have the RB on the right side of the QB and take a couple steps to the left before going back to the right.
No matter this is a solid play up front by everyone but McGlinchey, who gets shed by the DT that almost makes the play. But he stays on the block for just long enough and Estime does a great job of shedding the tackle and bursting. Meinerz smacks into the DE, Wattenberg forces the defender outside, and Adam Trautman does a solid job of washing the backer out.
Great running and (mostly) solid blocking up front.
I love Crack Toss. Such a classic play that Sean Payton loves to work into the game at least once. And McLaughlin is such a good style of running back to run this with.
The two receivers on the outside block down while the playside while Adkins and Bolles pull around to the outside. Bolles does a great job at demolishing the flowing defender too.
What makes this play go so well though is McLaughlin. The Browns do a great job of fast flowing to the point of attack and Denver is just out-manned. So McLaughlin decides to cut it back and there isn’t an orange helmet in sight. And another detail is Meinerz reacting to Jaleel cutting it back and giving him a lead block, which McLaughlin cuts off of for an extra couple of yards.
The use of Mims motioning across the line forces the backers to pause for just a hair, or at least think about it, because Denver has made it clear that you have to respect the Jet Sweep by Mims, and they did run it earlier in the game.
Bolles and Powers do a great job of picking up their guys and getting inside leverage and open up a massive hole in the playside A gap and McLaughlin has nothing but green grass in front of him.
A nice thing about Zone/ Duo is that it only takes two good blocks for a massive gap to open up. As long as the offensive line gives one lane/ cutback lane, then a good RB can do a lot of damage.
Final thoughts
The Broncos made a nice adjustment in the second half when it came to the play they wanted to run, which was Duo, and how they can set that up with other parts of their playbook.
But what really made the shift is the level of effort and execution by the offensive line and Jaleel McLaughlin continuing to carry the rock with such speed and quickness, and his feel for the game continues to improve.