For so many people who followed the Broncos over the years, the running game had become like an old shoe.
It brought so much comfort to so many happy Sundays that even as NFL offenses evolved and the well-worn notion of establishing a running game became passe, it was hard to throw away.
The Broncos lead the NFL in total yards and are second in points. Yet four games and three wins into the 2008 season, there are pangs of lament. What happened to the Broncos’ vaunted running game?
“When you’ve got a quarterback that can throw the ball and receivers that can catch, you’re going to use them,” Broncos center Casey Wiegmann said. “When the defense is putting that many guys in the box, and you have Brandon out there and you can just throw it up to him and he can make the big play, you might as well try it.”
There might come a time when the Broncos will have to run more and pass less. Just don’t expect them to regain their zone-blocking, one-cut rushing identity Sunday when they play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Invesco Field at Mile High. The Bucs held the Packers’ Ryan Grant to 20 yards on 15 carries last week.
Maybe when October ends.
“We can’t always throw the ball and think we’re going to win,” said Daniel Graham, the Broncos’ blocking tight end. “Especially when it gets later on in the season when it gets colder. We’re going to have work on the run game.”
Until then, in honor of October and the baseball playoffs starting, passing has become the grand slam of football. The running game has become the equivalent of a single, move him over, and another single.
There is something to be said for both. When the Broncos were shocked in Kansas City last week, it was fair to wonder whether the offense was perhaps too smitten with the pass. But passing always brings greater potential for high-scoring games. And with the Broncos’ defense allowing 34.3 points the past three games, the offense had better score.
The Broncos already have recorded 20 plays of at least 20 yards this year. The pass accounted for 19 of those 20 big plays.
“I like what we are doing right now,” said Jay Cutler. “I think (play-calling assistant) Jeremy Bates and the offensive staff are doing a great job. Obviously, they are going to look back at the last game and say we should have run the ball more or we should have done this and that, but that is how it goes sometimes. They are doing a great job upstairs.”
Cutler could be slightly biased. He’s the Broncos’ quarterback on pace to throw for 5,100 yards. Meanwhile, after making 1,000-yard rushers in the past decade out of Olandis Gary, Mike Anderson, Reuben Droughns and Tatum Bell, the Broncos don’t have a back this year who has gained as many as 80 yards in a game, much less 100.
The Broncos rank 14th in rushing. Never in the 14-year Mike Shanahan era have the Broncos been ranked lower than 12th, and they were in the top 10 in 12 of their previous 13 seasons. Their average NFL rushing ranking the previous 13 seasons is fifth.
“I don’t think it’s that they’re unhappy with us,” backup running back Andre Hall said. “It’s just that we’re using our passing weapons.”
If scouts were to rank the Broncos’ skill-position players in order of talent, it might be listed like this: 1. (tie) Cutler and receiver Brandon Marshall; 3. Eddie Royal, receiver; 4. Tony Scheffler, tight end; 5. Brandon Stokley, receiver; 6. Selvin Young, running back.
Looking at it this way, every time the Broncos run, they are taking the ball out of one of their best players’ hands.
“We’re just trying to score points,” Wiegmann said. “It doesn’t matter how we do it.”
Mike Klis: 303-954-1055 or mklis@denverpost.com
Passing on run
For the first time since 2002, the Broncos are passing more than running. The Broncos are also calling running plays less than 40 percent of the time for the first time since 1962 (63.5 percent pass, 36.5 percent run).
% run % pass Leading rusher, yards
2008 39.7 60.3 Selvin Young, 228
2007 45.4 54.6 Selvin Young, 729
2006 51.8 48.2 Tatum Bell, 1,025
2005 53.8 46.2 Mike Anderson, 1,014
2004 50.6 49.4 Reuben Droughns, 1,240
2003 53.1 46.9 Clinton Portis, 1,591
2002 45.2 54.8 Clinton Portis, 1,508
