The Broncos got right back in the win column on Monday night, beating the Texans 27-9. The run game hadn’t been itself during back-to-back losses to the Falcons and Chargers, but C.J. Anderson and Devontae Booker broke out for 190 rushing yards thanks to the blocking of the offensive line against Houston.
The offensive line has had some issues this season getting those gaps open for the running back to get through. The front line knows how hard the running backs work each week and made some changes to cater to Booker and Anderson.
“We definitely wanted to come out here and put some yards up on the ground for Book[er] and C.J.,” right tackle Donald Stephenson told Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro of Afternoon Drive on Mile High Sports Radio. “Those guys work hard all week, so we had more intensity, more focus, tweaks a little bit here and there. The coaches did a nice job calling the plays and putting us in the right position.”
Anderson and Booker both had a breakout game thanks to pure athleticism and Gary Kubiak‘s game plan.
“The tandem showed up,” Stephenson said. “Both of those guys came in and were hitting the right gaps. Even when it didn’t look good up front, they made some special plays. That was Coach Kubiak’s thing this week. He said he needed something special from the running backs, and they definitely did that.”
The play calling from the coaching staff put the o-line in a great position to make the block throughout the game. They could feel the difference in this game from the others that they struggled in.
“It definitely felt good,” Stephenson said. “We have to look at the tape and see. Yards wise, this might have been our best game up front. We just want to build off of it and bring the same intensity we had this past week. Keep that chip on our shoulder and block out all the doubters.”
In the first quarter, the offense was penalized a few times but they knew they had to keep playing hard.
“It was a little rough on us in the beginning, with the penalties,” Stephenson said. “We just kept yelling, ‘Keep playing, keep playing!’ You just have to keep your head down and keep working. We didn’t let it affect us. We didn’t let it get us off to a slow start. We knew that we needed to make it a good outing, and we weren’t going to let a few penalties stop us from doing that.”
To listen to the entire interview with Donald Stephenson, including his thoughts on how important first down plays are, click the podcast below…
https://soundcloud.com/milehighsports/10-25-16-under-the-guidance-of-trevor-siemian-how-far-can-the-broncos-go
Catch Afternoon Drive with Goodman and Shapiro Monday-Friday from 4p-6p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.