EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The New York Jets had made a clear choice on defense against the Denver Broncos.
The Jets made sure if the Broncos were going to win, quarterback Peyton Manning wasn't going to throw for 300 yards doing it. And history, as in the NFL’s record for career touchdown passes, was going to be made on somebody else’s watch.
Instead, the Broncos would have to grind it out on the ground for the 31-17 victory Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
"The way the Jets played us, my guess it they didn’t think much of the running game coming into the game," said Manning, who threw for three touchdowns and is now two passing touchdowns from tying the career record of 508. “Take your two linebackers and walk them both out on your two receivers [and] they’re basically kind of laughing at your run game. And based on what we’ve been doing, it’s probably a valid philosophy. So, it’s tough to throw the ball when they’ve got eight guys in coverage every single play.’’
Even for a defensive risk-taker like Jets coach Rex Ryan, it was an easy decision. Broncos running back Montee Ball was out of the lineup with a groin injury and the Jets have a good enough defensive front to make life difficult without blitzing. The Broncos had not shown they could win a game by running the ball, averaging 3.2 yards per rush and 79.5 rushing yards per game -- 29th in the league.
So, the Jets distributed their defensive resources away from the line of scrimmage and did it well enough that Broncos were sluggish at times, mistake-prone in others. The Broncos had five penalties on offense accepted to go with two more that were declined.
“It just felt like a run day," Broncos running back Ronnie Hillman said. “It was like the [Jets] defense said: ‘You’re not going to pass on us for 300 yard or anything like that, so we are going to have y’all run and see how that goes.' So, we ran."
When they needed Hillman to be the guy they believed he would be when they picked him in the third-round of the 2012 draft, Hillman stepped forward with 24 carries for 100 yards.
And no, it wasn’t always suitable for framing. The Broncos had three runs go for no gain, and one for negative yardage Sunday. It brings their season total to 28 rushing attempts in those two categories combined -- or 21.2 percent of their carries this season.
“A game like this comes, you’ve got to just take your punches and roll with them," Hillman said. “[Sunday] I just took them and rolled with it. [The Jets] have a very, very physical front seven and they played their asses off, but our offensive line did a great job in there and we got the run game going."
The Broncos went with three-wide receiver sets in their first 12 snaps of the game -- with less than favorable results. There was yet another bad snap in MetLife Stadium to go with a Manning sack on back-to-back plays. In the Broncos second series of the game, the Broncos muscled up.
They used more two tight end sets the rest of the way, including all 10 snaps in a third-quarter touchdown drive, often with reserve tackle Paul Cornick in the lineup as the second tight end. And when they wanted to give a little more a of pass look, they paired Jacob Tamme with Julius Thomas.
The result? In addition to Hillman’s career-best 100 yards, the Broncos rushed for a season-best 138 yards overall. Nobody is going to accuse them of grounding the Space Shuttle and dialing Manning into a grind-it-out look, but Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase adjusted and the Broncos adapted. And they did it with Hillman being asked, not to be a guy, but for an afternoon, to be the guy.
"I think that’s why the run game ended up opening up,'' Manning said. "When we could stay in phase and have the threat to run the ball, the advantage was to us."
“I’m just glad it worked out," Hillman said. “Now I want to carry it into next weekend too."
