Broncos have won six straight when Phillip Lindsay has 15 or more carries in a game

I saw a tweet come through on Monday from Ryan Koenigsberg of DNVR noting that the Denver Broncos have won six straight and are 10-4 overall when Phillip Lindsay carries the football 15 or more times in a game.

He finished the game versus the Miami Dolphins on Sunday with 16 carries for 82 yards. He didn’t score, but his biggest runs came at the most critical drive-extending moments to help the team to a 20-13 surprise upset.

A big part of that was due to Head Coach Vic Fangio noticing the Dolphins were using fronts that were popular back in the 1960s. So he moved away from the typical blocking scheme Denver had used all year for a more pull-heavy scheme to capitalize on what Miami was doing on defense.

“Part of the reason is—you hit on it when you went all the way back to the 60s,” Fangio said of why the team used a pull-heavy blocking scheme. “Miami plays some fronts that was popular in the 60s. We play those fronts here a little bit. We mix them in and disguise them a little bit more. Because of the way they play their defense, those runs were appealing to us. We put them in, and the guys did a great job of executing them.”

Both Lindsay and Melvin Gordon had solid days, but Gordon’s 15 carries for 84 yards and two touchdowns were marred by a critical fumble at the end zone that gave the Dolphins a chance to tie the game late if not for a game-clinching interception by Justin Simmons.

Moving forward, the Broncos need to figure out how to Feed Phil. They haven’t done a good job of that under Fangio. Lindsay has only topped 10 carries in two games this year and Denver won both of them. In 2019, Lindsay only had three games where he didn’t get the ball 10 times or more. Here’s to hoping we see more of Lindsay moving forward.

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