Why Broncos' early down run failures are biggest culprit in nagging slow starts

The Broncos lined up for their first play against the Rams on Sunday night with modest goals.

The big shots down the field could wait. This was about creating the kind of sturdy, if unspectacular, forward movement that would make the next phase of the drive easier.

"It's staying ahead of the chains," tight end Adam Trautman said. "Second-and-7 isn't bad. A 3-yard run, or whatever, to stay ahead of the chains, isn't a bad thing. At second-and-7, we have a lot of things at our disposal at that point."

Yet, as veteran running back J.K. Dobbins took a handoff from Bo Nix on Denver's opening play, it became immediately clear that even that conservative aim was out of reach. Defensive back Jaylen Watson slipped under a block attempt from wide receiver Courtland Sutton and dropped Dobbins for a 2-yard loss. Instead of second-and-7, the Broncos faced second-and-12. Two plays later, the Broncos were punting, a week's worth of planning geared around a faster start wiped away in 80 seconds.

"That kind of changes how you want to start the game," Trautman said. "Now, you have to get to different personnels, different types of plays, different concepts, whatever it is. We just have to move the ball forward, honestly. That's what it is."

The opening play Sunday was a microcosm of arguably the biggest contributing factor in Denver's woefully slow starts through three games. The Broncos are tied for last in the NFL in offensive rush success rate on early downs in first halves, according to TruMedia. They're achieving "successful" runs -- a 1-yard run on third-and-1, for example, is deemed a success; a 1-yard run on first-and-10 is not -- on only 16.7 percent of rushes during those periods. Denver had five first-down rushes in the first half against the Rams and gained 11 yards. No run by the Broncos in the first half was longer than four yards.

So Denver's struggles to open the game against the Rams may have been frustrating, but they were not of mysterious origin.

"We're not splitting the atom here relative to trying to move the football more efficiently earlier in the games," Broncos coach Sean Payton said Monday, roughly 12 hours after his team overcame a zero-point, 67-yard first half to stun the Rams, 30-26, and move to 2-1.

A moderate improvement in the second half changed everything for Denver's offense. The Broncos had four first-down runs of at least five yards, including Jaylen Waddle's 14-yard gain on a jet sweep that was the team's only explosive rush of the game (12 yards or more). The first touchdown drive of the game began with three straight runs by Dobbins. The veteran, who missed the end of the Week 2 win against the Jaguars with a hip issue, had no rushes of more than six yards all night, but Denver found just enough balance in the second half to create advantageous situations in the passing game.

"There were some runs that we got to in the second half that helped us stay on schedule," Payton said.

The Broncos used formations with two or three tight ends or a sixth offensive lineman on 10 of their 17 run plays in the second half Sunday compared to only two carries out of those groupings among their eight rushes in the first half. So getting more runs in heavier personnel groupings earlier may be one way for Denver to boost their early down run efficiency in the first half.

Payton, of course, would like the run game to get to a place where it has more explosive contributions. Injuries certainly haven't helped. Each of the team's top three backs -- Dobbins, RJ Harvey and rookie Jonah Coleman -- has already been on the injury report at some point this season. Harvey missed the Week 2 game with a hamstring and Coleman is on injured reserve until at least Week 7 after suffering a sprained ankle against the Jaguars. Dobbins leads the team in carries, but he hasn't replicated the form he produced early last season when he had six explosive runs through the first three weeks. He has just two in three games this season.

These are still early days, Payton reiterated Monday. Asked about his team's tendency to be in shotgun on third-and-short plays this season -- eight of 12 snaps on third-and-2 or shorter fit this description -- the coach said, in part, "we're way early in the process." He cautioned against drawing conclusions about any so-called tendencies for Denver's offense given the sample size. But targeting one of the biggest culprits for the crawling-out-of-the-gate starts offensively isn't a deeply complicated endeavor. On early downs, early in games, the Broncos must run the ball more efficiently if they want the slow-start label to melt away.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.