Broncos Film Review: Run Game vs the Jets

Welcome back to another team-focused film review. Obviously the low hanging fruit this week would have been to review Matt Peart’s first game in replacement of the injured Ben Powers, but I won’t insult your intelligence. I trust that all of you know he got a 0.0% according to the RGS and we do not need to speak of him further, besides celebrating when he gets replaced (bumping Wattenberg, or starting Throckmorton or Palczewski).

I saw many people mentioning their frustration with Sean Payton’s play calling on Sunday (which is deserved, but he’s usually good), and specifically people were confused about why he was so committed to the run game in the second half, rather than having Bo Nix continue to deal like he did in the first half. So that’s why I’ve complied every designed run that wasn’t RPO’d so we can see if we can get to the bottom of this.

I’ll try to answer three questions: why did Payton stick with the run game, what was working for the Denver Broncos, and what lead to their inability to run the ball well, in either half?

Stat crunch

Game summary

The Broncos ran the ball 22 times (designed run plays that weren’t RPO’d) for 60 yards (2.7 YPC). They gave their backs 20 yards before contact (0.9 YBCPC). Four of their 22 rushes went for no gain and one went for a loss.

JK Dobbins got the majority of carries with 14, but Payton did spread the ball around. RJ Harvey got a pair while Jaleel McLaughlin, Evan Engram, Marvin Mims, Troy Franklin, Bo Nix, and Adam Prentice all got one carry.

The Broncos mostly ran out of the Gun (eight rushes), gained 23 yards, and had the most yards per carry (2.9) with this formation. Singleback was their second-most used formation (seven rushes, 19 yards) with the I following in third (six rushes, 16 yards), and they ran one time out of the Pistol for two yards. Singleback and I both netted the same amount of yards per carry (2.7).

Like the rest of their games, Denver operated mostly out of their zone scheme, running Inside Zone 10 times and Outside Zone once. Their zone rushes netted them 34 yards (3.1 YPC) and four of these rushes went for five or more yards. Three of them went for no gain, however.

Other plays included Counter (two rushes), Toss (four rushes), Fly Sweep, Inside Trap, Draw, Power, and an End Around.

First half summary

The Broncos ran for 30 yards in the first half on 10 carries (three YPC) and gave their backs 16 yards before contact (1.6 YBCPC). Their best play was a gain of seven on the Fly Sweep by Evan Engram.

Only two of their rushes went for no gain, everything else was positive.

Their most popular formation was Singleback.

Second half summary

The Broncos also ran for 30 yards in the second half, but it was on 12 carries (2.5 YPC). The real...