Sean Payton felt frustrated with himself as soon as the Broncos’ loss to the Jets in Week 5 finished.
One driving reason? Early success running the ball and a halftime lead couldn’t convince the Broncos coach — in his first year here but with decades of NFL experience — to stick with pounding the ball against a defense that hadn’t shown it could stop it.
“I know better,” he said then. “I have to be more patient relative to how we run the ball, and it was that type of game.”
Early on Thursday night against Kansas City, Payton and the Broncos showed signs of that patience as they ran it on 12 of their first 18 snaps.
They picked up all four of their first-quarter first downs on the ground and had the ball for 9 minutes, 18 seconds.
They used three running backs on the opening drive alone. Rookie Jaleel McLaughlin first, then Samaje Perine, then Javonte Williams. Fullback Mike Burton picked up a first down on a dive play.
Once again, though, the plan went awry. This time it wasn’t all on Payton.
Quarterback Russell Wilson threw a bad interception one play after Williams blasted for 18 yards. A second Burton dive attempt on third-and-1 got stuffed and resulted in a punt. Wilson took sacks twice on third-and-3 attempts, manageable distances to convert, leading to two more punts.
By the time the Broncos bungled two attempts with the ball in the final three minutes of the first half and the Chiefs kicked field goals to close the first half and open the second, Denver trailed 16-0 and decided to move at least mostly away from rushing the ball.
Par for the course for Payton’s team this year. Their run game has been mostly effective and efficient. The problem is twofold: Opportunities to really lean on the run game Payton said had to be part of the Broncos’ DNA this year have been infrequent. They’ve run twice as many plays while trailing this year (222) as they have when leading or tied (111). And when they do get a chance, Payton hasn’t had the discipline to make it stick.
As such, the 1-5 Broncos look like a quality rushing outfit that has yet to run the ball more than 23 times in a game or for more than 139 yards.
“We’ve got to play complementary football,” right tackle Mike McGlinchey told The Post after the loss to Kansas City. “We’ve got to be able to be balanced on offense, be able to stretch the field when we need to and convert passes when we need to.
“I thought we ran the ball well. I liked the plan to stay committed to the run game. It’s exciting and obviously, as an offensive lineman, it’s something we believe in. But at the end of the day we didn’t do enough to convert.”
The Broncos through six games are fourth in the NFL in yards per carry at 4.9, but 18th in total rushing yards. They are one of six teams in the league with one or zero rushing touchdowns on the year.
Some of the quality per-carry average is because Wilson’s rushed 22 times for 150 (6.8 per carry) and 13 of the Broncos’ 36 rushing first downs. But Denver’s running back trio has been effective, too. They’ve combined to average 4.63 yards on 101 carries led by McLaughlin’s 6.6 per. Williams returned against Kansas City after missing a game and looked powerful, rushing for 52 on 10 attempts.
He acknowledged he’s not quite all the way back from last October’s major knee injury, but that he continues to feel better and better.
“I honestly feel like I’m getting a whole lot better and I’m getting closer and closer to 100%,” Williams said Monday. “The game we play, there’s always going to be something new that pops up, but overall I’m feeling pretty good.”
Williams and Denver’s other two backs haven’t faced a heavy workload running the ball. They haven’t combined for more than 21 carries in a game and have been at 19 or fewer since the opener against Las Vegas.
Could this be the weekend Denver finally puts it together on the ground? No team has faced more rushing attempts per game than Green Bay (33.6). The Packers have allowed the fifth-most rushing yards per game (143.5) and are tied for 11th most allowed per carry (4.3).
Williams is all for it.
“That would be the perfect game, like pitching a perfect game,” Williams said. “I know there’s a lot that goes into it, play-action to keep the defense honest and stuff like that. However Coach Payton calls the game, it’s my job to go out there and make him look good.”
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