During its four-game losing streak, Denver Broncos were getting blown out because the defense couldn’t stop the run, but also, because the offense was bland, boring and low-scoring.

But on Thursday night, the Broncos came to play on both sides of the ball — the defense was much improved and the offense finally brought some creativity — to blow out the Arizona Cardinals 45-10.

While the defense was sensational, with six sacks and 13 hits of Josh Rosen while also enjoying two pick-6s off of the rookie, the offense was better than we’ve seen it in quite some time. Maybe, all year long.

Over the last two weeks, the Broncos called a pass-heavy offense, throwing the ball 73 percent of the time. On Thursday, Musgrave dialed up 28 runs compared to 22 throws, running the ball more often with his No. 1 in the NFL rushing offense in yards per carry (5.3 entering the game).

That was the first, intelligent thing Musgrave did; run the ball more.

The second thing he did was finally call some electric, tricky plays. In the first quarter, Musgrave dialed up the lateral to Emmanuel Sanders, which drew the safety toward the line of scrimmage, and then Sanders threw the touchdown to Courtland Sutton. The rookie hauled the ball in with one hand and Denver led 14-0

“That play’s been on our game plan sheet for about three weeks,” Vance Joseph said of the throw from Sanders to Sutton. “I mean, he’s scored three times this year on a jet sweep. That play had a lot of suction to it. The safety and the corner bit. Obviously, 14 was in the corner wide open. It was a great catch by him.”

As Joseph explained, Sanders kept the ball on the jet sweep and scored three times already this year. They set up the pins and knocked them all down for a strike in a way the great offenses always seemingly find a way to do.

Later in the game, with the Cardinals struggling mightily, Musgrave went for the jugular and threw it deem from Case Keenum to Sanders for the 64-yard touchdown.

That wasn’t just great killer instinct by Musgrave, the play-action was also set up by the run-heavy offense. And, it was again a great decision to use the play-action by Musgrave, because Keenum — who’s struggled to adjust to the Broncos — enjoys about a 30-point boost in terms of his passer rating when dialing up a play-action pass.

And in the fourth quarter, when the Broncos needed to run the clock, Musgrave did the smart thing and ran the ball. Like he didn’t against the Kansas City Chiefs, to run the clock out; that was an improvement, smart by Musgrave, too.

In the end, they finished with 309 total yards, 15 first downs and went 5-13 on critical third downs.

Overall, this win marks the rise of the Broncos defense back to dominant standards, yes. But maybe more importantly, it shows how well the Broncos offense can play when Musgrave calls a smart, creative game.

With the victory, Denver improves to 3-4 on the season, with a 9-day break now. They have to be feeling positive about the all-out, complete win over the Arizona Cardinals, and know the defense doesn’t have to lead them to all their wins this year.