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They will run in pairs, one at a time.
They will plow straight ahead, sprint around end or slice off tackle. But mostly, when the Broncos and Pittsburgh Steelers are running, they might as well run right into a mirror.
They are identical, only opposite.
Welcome to the AFC championship game, where quarterbacks are an afterthought and Invesco Field at Mile High is likely to be left Sunday with wisps of dust every 3 or 4 yards.
“Looking at this matchup, the way the defenses are, it will require both backs,” said Merril Hoge, an NFL analyst for ESPN and a former Steelers running back.
Like the Broncos, the Steelers employ a running back by committee. Where the two teams run their separate ways is at lead back. The Broncos primarily feature Mike Anderson, a strong, tough, between-the-tackles runner, then spell him with the speedy and elusive Tatum Bell.
The Steelers begin by giving the ball to Willie Parker, a fast, shifty back who probably could get the tough yards, too, if he didn’t have one of the all-time best short-yardage backs in NFL history running behind him in Jerome Bettis.
“I think both coaches have just worked their way into this running back by committee,” CBS commentator and former quarterback Phil Simms said of Pittsburgh’s Bill Cowher and the Broncos’ Mike Shanahan. “In other words, I don’t know if they’ve believed in it in years past. I don’t think they did. But as time has gone along in the NFL, the athletes have gotten faster, they have found out that when you have two guys going in and out, it just keeps them fresh.”
In the regular season, Parker carried the ball nearly 2 1/2 times more than Bettis while the Broncos used closer to a 60-40 split with Anderson and Bell. But the regular season included games against teams that couldn’t stop the run if they were spotted the line of scrimmage.
Yards are much harder to gather come playoff time. Among the most telling stats for this conference championship week: Each remaining participant in the NFL’s final four finished among the league’s top five in run defense. The Broncos were second, Steelers were third, Carolina was fourth and Seattle was fifth. The San Diego Chargers were first, in part because most teams preferred to attack their vulnerable pass coverage.
As the running holes shrink, it probably is no coincidence that in their respective playoff wins last weekend, the Steelers gave the 260-something-pound Bettis the same number of carries as Parker (17), while the Broncos gave the more powerful Anderson (19 carries) more than three times the workload of Bell (six).
“Yes, the sledding is much more difficult in the playoffs,” said Hoge, who nearly single- handedly beat the Broncos in a playoff game in the 1989 season with a 120-yard rushing, 60-yard receiving performance. “You fight for every inch. Every inch matters. But I still think as the game unfolds, if one guy gets hot, they’re not going to leave that guy.”
To put it another way, if Parker is getting 5 or 6 yards a carry, Broncos fans might not get many chances to witness how a “Bus” runs at altitude. And if Bell manages to slither through Pittsburgh’s stout front seven a time or two, there’s nothing in Shanahan’s fabled script that can’t be erased and rewritten.
“It’s a true blessing that we all are getting an opportunity and a chance to contribute,” Anderson said. “When you look at the big picture, it makes us better all the way around as a team.”
It could be Parker and Bettis, Bell and Anderson. Or it could be Anderson vs. Bettis, Bell vs. Parker. However the back rotation works out, they will rotate.
“As Mike Shanahan says, it keeps his guys on edge, keeps them running hard,” Simms said. “And they keep going for the extra yard instead of maybe preserving themselves for the next carry.”
Check out those defenses. Look at the coaches’ philosophies. The one-back offense is for Pro Bowls. The AFC championship game is for committees.
Staff writer Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
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