EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — One start. One, 100-yard game.
It won’t be easy for Ronnie Hillman to put together a satisfying encore.
“My first one,” he said. “Hopefully, it’s not the last.”
Hillman is in his third season with the Broncos, but he didn’t get his first start until Montee Ball suffered a groin injury last week. Against the New York Jets on Sunday, Hillman at one point had 103 yards rushing on 23 carries.
He was then gang-tackled for a 3-yard loss on his 24th and final attempt. Still, Hillman unleashed his explosiveness on runs of 26, 12 and 12 yards.
“The O-line made adjustments and made it easy for me to run,” Hillman said. “It’s like the (Jets) were saying you’re not going to beat us with the pass. It felt good to get the run game going and give us more balance.”
The Broncos rushed for a season-most 138 yards as rookie Juwan Thompson added 38 yards on eight carries.
“They trusted me to get in the rotation,” Thompson said. “They said they like my running style. I’m trying to pick up this offense even more and understand it even better to where I’m ready to go for all situations.”
The biggest disappointment to the running game was Hillman fumbled away the ball at the end of his 26-yard run. Luckily for him and the Broncos, receiver teammate Andre Caldwell swooped in for the recovery.
“It was an effort fumble,” Hillman said. “I was trying to fight for more yards. A lesson learned. Get what you can get and get down. I’ll keep learning and carry that lesson into next week.”
Mike Klis: mklis@denverpost.com; Twitter: @mikeklis
