Another week, another Denver Broncos win.
Following an ugly outing against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 6, the Broncos took care of business against a depleted New Orleans Saints team in Sean Payton’s homecoming, defeating the Saints by a score of 33-10.
That marks the fourth win in five weeks for Denver, including three wins by 16 or more points. While not the strongest opponents, the team is dominating bad football teams and taking care of business as a quality team should be expected to.
That fact was on display in numerous ways in Week 7.
The Denver Broncos’ Defense Put Up Their Best Performance Yet
On Thursday night, Denver was set to play against the Saints without the best player on their team – Pat Surtain II.
Against the Chargers, the Broncos’ defense had its worst performance of the season without Surtain, and it led some to question how they would perform on limited rest under the same circumstances.
The result was an astonishingly good one – the team dominated the Saints’ offense both on the ground and through the air.
The Saints’ running backs tallied 16 carries for 64 yards, but the performance was even worse than the numbers suggest. Alvin Kamara, one of the best backs in the NFL and the leading rusher for New Orleans, added a meager 10 yards on the ground over his seven carries.
The wildest stat to come out from the game reflected just how dominant Denver was against the ground game. Through all rushing attempts, the Saints totaled negative seven yards before contact for the evening.
Read that again.
That practically means that, on a majority of touches, New Orleans’ backs were hit in the backfield well before ever crossing the line of scrimmage.
As dominant of a performance as the rushing defense showed, they were just as good through the air.
The Saints were able to throw for only 172 yards while taking six sacks and fumbling the ball twice, including one returned for a touchdown. The Broncos forced another takeaway-touchdown combo as well, although D.J. Jones lining up offsides negated that.
Without Olave and Shaheed, the New Orleans’ offensive attack felt suffocated early on and that never changed throughout the game.
The Running Game Is Emerging As a Unit the Broncos Can Lean on
After the Chargers game, most of the optimism built up regarding the Denver Broncos’ running game across the three-game winning streak was instantly deflated. The team was not able to move the ball on the ground consistently, and Javonte Williams had a disastrous game that included a fumble and a costly drop.
That momentum from the previous stretch returned in a major way against New Orleans, as the team produced their best rushing performance of the season.
Williams carried the rock 14 times for 88 yards and two touchdowns, and the running game also saw contributions from Audric Estime, Jaleel McLaughlin, and Bo Nix. Nix ran for 75 yards while the two other backs combined for an additional 64 yards. It was a balanced group effort as the Broncos established the run early and continued to do so throughout the contest.
The most encouraging sign across the rest of the season has been the improved performance of the offensive line in the running game.
While the line has been dominant as a pass-blocking unit throughout the entire season, the unit struggled to open holes and move bodies in the run game early on. We have seen improvement in that area, and the best outing of the year from that group led to a seamless rushing performance.
If the offensive line and group of backs can continue to play how they did on Thursday, the running game will go from the weakness it was early on, to a unit that the offensive side of the ball can lean on.
