For the first time in a month and the fourth time this season, the Denver Broncos defense held their opponent to under 100 yards rushing in a 25-23 win over the Saints in New Orleans.
After giving up a season-high 218 yards to the Oakland Raiders in a 10-point loss in Week 9, Denver held the New Orleans rushing attack to just 80 total yards on 21 attempts. The Saints entered the game averaging 108.25 yards per game while Denver was allowing 128.6. Denver did so with their best run defender, Derek Wolfe, sidelined with a broken elbow. Wolfe is expected to miss at least another 2-3 weeks with the injury.
The 2016 Broncos run defense has been a far cry from the 2015 unit that finished third in the league with 83.6 yards allowed per game en route to a Super Bowl win. Denver entered this game against New Orleans ranked 29th in the league, but Mark Ingram and Tim Hightower were unable to get anything going on Sunday.
New Orleans went with some jumbo packages very early in the game, but abandoned that quickly when they were not having success. Denver was excellent shutting them down at the first level all game.
Ingram averaged 4.5 yards on 11 carries and had the only double-digit carry for New Orleans, a gain of 10 in the second half. Hightower was stifled all day, rushing for just 21 yards on eight carries. Drew Brees contributed nine yards on a scramble to help boost those numbers even more.
Without Wolfe, Denver started Billy Winn and relied heavily on Jared Crick and Todd Davis to shut down the run and make the Saints one-dimensional. Crick and Davis combined for 12 tackles, nine solo, and Von Miller contributed a critical tackle for a loss on third down to stall a drive in the second half.
It was a much-needed bounceback performance on the defensive line after the loss at Oakland. The pass rush only got to Brees once, but it was just enough to help deliver another nail-biter of a win.
Denver has a week to get healthy as they head into the bye. They’ll return to face Kansas City, who kept pace in the AFC West by beating Carolina on the road.
Here’s a couple quick notes from the team at MHS and some of our favorite follows in Denver about how the defense stepped up to stop the run against New Orleans…
@Broncos facing a lot of "jumbo" package again. Worked so well for the Raiders. Hard to stop running game w/all those big bodies pushin'
— Les Shapiro (@LesShapiro) November 13, 2016
#Saints game plan odd. Attacking with passes on outside. Teams have gone at #Broncos w run and passes vs. LBs in middle of field. #DENvsNO
— Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) November 13, 2016
So 3rd and 1 & u run at von miller and leave him unblocked. Sounds like solid strategy. #Broncos
— Eric Christensen (@cbseric) November 13, 2016
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