Broncos analysis: Denver sows seeds of offensive identity in pulverizing Monday night win over Bengals

Sean Payton acknowledged reality but also issued a forecast In the first three weeks the Broncos head coach conceded last week his unit had not settled on an offensive identity A little bit of this A little bit of that A inadequate too plenty of missteps and far too plenty of flags Little in the way of consistency or continuity Not much to point to as a true strength or a go-to in tough times Appealed for a timeline on when such an identity might form Payton reported I think soon Not soon enough for Denver s first drive Monday night but in plenty of time to put forth a dominant performance the rest of the way in a - manhandling of Cincinnati at Empower Field This was an exercise in road grading rather than rocket science The Broncos mostly stayed ahead of the chains They ran the ball consistently They converted on third downs because they had manageable distances to go J K Dobbins of the Denver Broncos gets tackled by a gang of Cincinnati Bengals defenders during the first quarter at Empower Field at Mile High on Monday Sept Photo by AAron Ontiveroz The Denver Post They controlled the challenge because they controlled the ball racking up in possession time to Cincinnati s In the process Payton s offense indicated signs of what it can be going forward Yes they still committed far too several penalties with seven flags and four accepted for the offense alone and seven accepted for yards total Related Articles PHOTOS Denver Broncos trounce Cincinnati Bengals - in NFL Week Broncos four downs Bo Nix is back baby Good thing as Vic Fangio Philly await WR Marvin Mims Jr healthy functioning for Broncos Week clash with Bengals How it Happened Broncos dominate in MNF win over Joe Burrow-less Bengals After last year s shredding Broncos CB Riley Moss has Monday s Bengals rematch circled And yes quarterback Bo Nix threw a red zone interception late in the first half his second scoring-territory turnover in the past three games Mostly though the Broncos moved the ball at will Their opening three-and-out made eight in full possessions dating to the start of last week s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers From there though they turned in a diametrically opposite performance A week ago Denver ran plays total for yards and nine first downs In the first half alone Monday night the Broncos ran for and They finished the night with first downs to the Bengals nine A week ago Denver converted just twice on third-down tries and averaged yards to go on those downs In the first half Monday the Broncos converted of and averaged yards to go Bo Nix of the Denver Broncos throws as BJ Hill of the Cincinnati Bengals pressures during the second quarter at Empower Field at Mile High on Monday Sept Photo by AAron Ontiveroz The Denver Post A week ago Denver went three-and-out seven times After the first drive Monday night Nix and company generated four first downs per drive for four straight extended marches and got at least one first down on nine consecutive possessions through the rest of the night They rushed for yards in the first half and overall on the night When J K Dobbins rumbled for down the left sideline in the middle of the fourth quarter he became the Broncos first -yard rusher since Latavius Murray in the final battle of the season and the first of the Payton era in Denver ending a -game streak without one Dobbins finished with yards on carries and combined with rookie R J Harvey for touches offensive yards and a Harvey receiving touchdown that gave Denver a - lead in the fourth quarter and put the battle on ice We felt like we d be able to run the ball Payton reported We knew this was an central championship to be able to establish the line of scrimmage and we did There s plenty of reason to use caution before declaring all of Denver s offensive ills cured and their identity crystal clear When they took the field with minutes seconds remaining in the third quarter and leading - Nix had still dropped back times to called runs The penalty issues are still pertinent and Monday night featured five flags three accepted on center Luke Wattenberg alone Rookie receiver Pat Bryant also lined up offside and the Broncos had seven penalties five accepted total on the offense Infractions alone essentially marred two second-half drives for Denver s offense Broncos four downs Bo Nix is back baby Good thing as Vic Fangio Philly await This file is auto-generated function d l use strict l querySelector d addEventListener undefined typeof URL d wp d wp d wp receiveEmbedMessage d wp receiveEmbedMessage function e var t e details if t t secret t message t value a-zA-Z - test t secret for var s r n a l querySelectorAll 'iframe data-secret ' t secret ' ' o l querySelectorAll 'blockquote data-secret ' t secret ' ' c new RegExp https i i i