A lot of time will be spent in the coming days, and understandably so with what the Broncos did in Oakland on Sunday, about whether the option offense can work over the long haul in the NFL.
But there was an effect on the team’s run game overall in the strategic shift the Broncos made.
They became a far more either-or team, at least for one day, when running back Willis McGahee was carrying the ball as well. As in, it was either a big play or it wasn’t.
There wasn’t much middle ground in McGahee’s 163-yard effort.
He had 10 carries for two yards or fewer in the game — or 50 percent of his carries. He also had five carries of 8 yards or more — 25 percent — including his touchdown runs of 19 and 60 yards.
The Broncos ran McGahee out of “run” formations on just eight of the carries, two in a two-back set to go with six in a two-tight end set.
Like most of the Broncos offense on the day, the bulk of McGahee’s carries were out of a three-wide receiver look. And in the open formation, with bigger splits between the offensive linemen and smaller players, in general, in the formation, the Broncos sometimes had a more difficult time getting McGahee free.
That will be their challenge moving forward to keep McGahee on his current roll — he has four 100-yard rushing games this season. The Broncos hadn’t had a back with four 100-yard games in a season since Tatum Bell in 2006.
But out of the three-wide, McGahee had runs of 1, 2, 2, and 3 yards among his first six carries. But his last carry of the game in a three-wide set also resulted in the 60-yard touchdown run as the Broncos had six offensive linemen in the game to beef up the front in what appeared to be a passing look.
On two snaps in three-wide, the Broncos did use backup tackle Chris Clark as an extra blocker rather than a tight end. Those snaps included the 60-yard run.
“I just felt like some of those holes were huge. The guys up front did a great job,” McGahee said.
The Broncos continue to try to deal with the fact defenses are going to load the line of scrimmage with Tebow at quarterback, and they certainly won Sunday’s round. At this stage of Tebow’s development, defenses would still prefer to keep him in situations where he has to throw his way out of trouble and take the option game off the table.
The Raiders did load the line of scrimmage but broke one of the most basic rules of run defense at times: They didn’t set the edge enough with the outermost defender up front. They got lured down inside too often by Tebow’s ball fakes; McGahee said he had to adjust his steps to take the handoffs at halftime because Tebow was “riding” the play so long or carrying out the fake for an extended period of time.
The defenses coming on the schedule will try to remain a little more disciplined than the Raiders were, particularly former Bronco Jarvis Moss and Kamerion Wimbley.
“We made it work,” McGahee said. “Now we’ll see moving forward what the coaches decided to do. I feel like we can run the ball out of any look, and I think we’ve shown that.”
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
