The Denver Broncos have to find a way to flush the bad waste of Monday’s loss to the Chiefs fast, with a dangerous Jacksonville Jaguars team coming to town. In order to do that, the Broncos must find a way to commit to something they’ve had a hard time believing in, and that’s the run game.
Denver Broncos three biggest storylines vs. Jacksonville Jaguars
There’s a laundry list of things the Broncos have to clean up on offense and defense ahead of Sunday’s game, but let’s start with the most important one.
Run the ball. Run the ball. Run THE BALL
In Monday’s loss to Kansas City, the Denver Broncos rushed 12 times on designed runs, excluding three scramble attempts by Bo Nix. They had four rushing attempts in the first quarter and aired it out nine times, including a Nix scoring drive that tied the game at 7-7, where he went 5-for-5 for 50+ yards and a touchdown strike to Evan Engram.
Four first-quarter rushing attempts, only to have eight more the rest of the game, is a losing strategy. The biggest issue is that the Broncos didn’t try to run it after they tied the game up. Denver had a 3rd and 2 and a 3rd and 1 where they opted to throw both times instead of running it, with one pass being thrown a yard short of the sticks and the other one falling incomplete.
After trailing 21-7 in the third quarter, J.K. Dobbins had a 17-yard rush off the left side and ultimately finished the game with 8 of Denver’s 12 total rushing attempts.
While Denver refused to run the ball, Kansas City embraced it, and that was one of the biggest differences in how the Chiefs ultimately ran away with the game, pun intended.
After seeing the Broncos run the ball in the preseason against Atlanta, where QBs went under center, and the team pounded the rock inside with Harvey and even fullback Adam Prentice. Monday’s on-field display saw some under-center work, but not a lot of run plays.
Denver tried to get the play-action game going, but it’s hard to establish that when the defense doesn’t fear or respect a sliver of the run game. That has to change on Sunday.
Davis Webb and the Broncos offense need to come out and commit to it early on. Even if the first carry makes you lose a yard, or if they only get two yards, they have to find a way to get it going.
If they can’t, this Broncos team more than likely won’t be able to sustain or replicate the success they had last season in one-score games. Sean Payton said after the Chiefs’ game he wasn’t pleased with the team’s rushing numbers, and he has to be the bug in Webb’s ear to force that to change, and Payton himself has to believe in the run game.
Broncos tackling issues are correctable
28 missed tackles was the troubling number from Monday’s loss, which was the bad news. The good news is that a lot of the issues they had there are correctable. Alignment, assignment, execution. Cliché, I get it, but there were too many instances on Monday Night where players either weren’t aligned correctly, didn’t do their assignment, or simply failed to execute.
Too many arm tackles and not enough wrapping up. Vance Joseph will have the defense right this week, but the Jaguars present a challenge with second-year rusher Bhayshul Tuten, Chris Rodriguez, and veteran Ameer Abdullah.
In Week 1, the Jaguars rushed for 126 yards on 32 carries, with Tuten averaging 4.4 yards per carry on 15 attempts, Abdullah averaging 8.0 yards per carry on four attempts, and Rodriguez coming in with 23 yards on six carries. They could embrace a situational committee approach vs. Denver.
Part of stopping Monday’s game from carrying over into Sunday for the Broncos specifically is winning the early down situations. The Chiefs ran the ball well on first and second down, which made Denver’s defense face a more difficult task on third down, where the Chiefs finished 9-of-17 (53%) on converting on third down, and they went for it in short-yardage situations on 4th down, going 2-of-3.
Trevor Lawrence also presents the Broncos defense with a tough challenge because of his mobility and threat as a runner in the rushing game, but also in the passing game, where he can maneuver a messy pocket, extend plays to the outside, and throw on the run.
On paper, the Jaguars don’t feel like a good matchup for this Broncos team to bounce back from Week 1, but we have seen this team respond well to adversity before.
Help Bo Nix help himself
Bo Nix didn’t have a good performance on Monday Night Football in his first real game action back since the ankle fracture in January. Bo did some things well, but made a handful of mistakes on his own. He fumbled the ball three times and, thankfully, only lost one. He threw an interception on his first series to a rookie cornerback who played Courtland Sutton well.
After watching the All-22, Nix didn’t have a consistent enough performance from center Luke Wattenberg, left guard Ben Powers, or right tackle Mike McGlinchey. It felt like left tackle Garett Bolles and right guard Quinn Meinerz were the only two offensive linemen who played well.
Wattenberg had several snaps that were low and left, high and left, and off-center to Nix out of shotgun, which was an issue for him in 2025. Denver struggled with four-man and three-man pressure situations from Kansas City.
Denver’s lack of commitment to running the football didn’t help him either; holding penalties by wide receivers also hurt the offense. We all know that Nix can play and can be a potential top quarterback in this league, but he can’t do it alone, and he certainly can’t make some of the mistakes he has.
There’s not a perfect utopia right now for the Broncos offense, but I can’t help but feel that running the football and actually getting the ground game going won’t hurt, and it will help take pressure off of Nix’s shoulders to have to carry the load and weight of an offense that has been far too inconsistent over his first two seasons.
It’s not solely on Nix, but he’ll be the one who takes the fire from national pundits like Colin Cowherd, who flip-flops more than a freaking shoe.
The on-the-wagon, off-the-wagon shtick gets old, whether it’s from national pundits like Cowherd or even fans. Pick a side.
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