Miles
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- Mar 18, 2019
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SEATTLE -- The hole that running back Royce Freeman saw early Thursday night was the same type of gap he's seen flash before him throughout training camp.
Left tackle Garett Bolles sealed the left side, taking care of defensive tackle Quinton Jefferson. Left guard Dalton Risner wiped out defensive tackle Jamie Meder on the inside. Fullback Andy Janovich cleared out linebacker Cody Barton at the second level.
With that, Freeman was off, turning third-and-1 into a 50-yard gain that allowed the offense to finish its first drive -- and its only series with Joe Flacco at quarterback -- with a 25-yard Brandon McManus field goal.
Freeman gave the credit to his blockers.
"Garett and Dalton opened it up, leading out through with Jano. I've always loved running behind him," Freeman said.
Bolles tipped his cap to Freeman.
"I came off the ball and hit [Jefferson], widened him out. He came inside, so I just had to finish him," Bolles said. "But it's all Royce, man. He saw the hole. We just did what we had to do up front and the play worked out great."
It was also set up by their work in practice. Defensive end Derek Wolfe has seen those holes created at the expense of the Broncos' front seven. He attributes them to better communication.
"That left side of our offensive line, those two mesh and gel together," Wolfe said. "They work well together. Guys like me and Von try to run games, try and trick them, do stuff like that, and they're not going to fall for that because they're communicating with each other, they're friends with each other, they care about each other."
All that kept the play from being perfect was the only thing Freeman would have changed: He would have made a different move downfield against Seattle safety Tedric Thompson.
"I've got to make a move next time," Freeman said, "but it was good to get out there and break one."
Unfortunately for the Broncos, the ground game struggled after that. Freeman's run accounted for more than half of the Broncos' ground output; their other 19 attempts netted just 41 yards (including a 2-yard loss on a kneeldown at the end of the first half).