With their 30-16 rout of the Arizona Cardinals, the Denver Broncos finally played their first complete game of the season. In all three phases, the Broncos won their battles and were triumphant securing their fifth victory of their 2026 gridiron campaign. At 5-2, Denver remains in a great spot in a super competitive AFC playoff race.
While there is still plenty of room for improvement, the building blocks for success on offense were effectively laid against the Cardinals. One aspect where the Broncos came up big was establishing the run. The commitment to the ground game wasn’t there early on, but it was a huge emphasis for the team in the second half.
By the end of the game, the Broncos had rushed for 159 yards—their highest total of the season and just their third outing this season eclipsing the 100-yard mark. After the game, Head Coach Sean Payton discussed what he felt worked well for their rushing attack.
“I thought we had a good plan relative to some of the gap schemes. It’s a pretty tough unit. We wanted to
be in a little bit more base personnel. Someone asked last week about Adam Prentice and it’s kind of
like ‘ah.’ We’re leading into this game where we were going to be in a little bit more 21 personnel to keep
them out of some of their nickel looks so that was good,” stated Payton.
Quarterback Bo Nix’s 62-yard touchdown scamper late in the first half was a huge spark for the offense. That led to an off-kilter performance by the Cardinals’ defense, who gave up a handful of splash plays the remainder of the game. In the second half, Payton switched up his playcalling and was more dedicated to dictating the pace of the game by running the ball with authority.
Rookie running back Jonah Coleman looked fantastic. In his first performance since the Jacksonville Jaguars game, Coleman impressed. He notched 54 yards on 9 carries and sported a six yard per carry average. The fourth-round pick led all backs with 30 snaps—half of Denver’s offensive snap counts—followed by RJ Harvey with 16, and J.K. Dobbins at 14.
Moving forward, it’s quite clear Coleman should be the lead back in the Broncos’ backfield. His decisiveness at the line of scrimmage and ability to break tackles made a huge difference in yesterday’s game. Payton told reporters after the win that he certainly needs to find a way to get him more touches.
With Denver’s run game kicking into high gear, we saw a rebound performance from Nix. While his overall completion percentage wasn’t great, the third-year quarterback played his most aggressive game of the season. On numerous occasions, Nix stepped up in the pocket and dialed up great throws down the middle of the field. He also took a few deep shots which were absent from his performances earlier in the year.
Nix told reporters after the game he was pleased with the offense’s production against the Cardinals. However, he noted there are a lot of things they can clean up. Their Week 8 opponent is the Kansas City Chiefs, who lost against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday Night Football. That means next Sunday’s game will be for division lead.
“I hope we are coached tough. I hope they make it really important this week to find those details. There’s
several things in the game that we can grow from. It’s an important week and we know that and we have
to be really sharp and disciplined so we can carry the coaching from this game on into this week,” stated Nix.
Last night, we saw the Seahawks stay dedicated to the run to topple the Chiefs. Hopefully, the Broncos take notice and attempt to establish that in front of a hometown crowd on November 1st. Good things happen when you run the ball effectively. It keeps defenses honest and opens up big play opportunities for the quarterback. If Denver can accomplish that, they’ll have a great shot at reclaiming their spot atop the AFC West.