Dud No. 3 – Ronnie Hillman without C.J. Anderson
Ronnie Hillman and C.J. Anderson may not be making fantasy football owners very happy this year, but lately they’ve been making their head coach and their quarterback pretty darn happy.
Against Chicago and New England, Denver ran for 170 and 179 yards, respectively. Hillman and Anderson traded 100-yard efforts in those contests. The combination that fans are calling “lightning and thunder” has kept defenses off balance and opened up the play-action for Brock Osweiler.
But on Sunday Anderson was held out of the second half with an ankle injury and Hillman’s effectiveness was limited as a result. Anderson ran for 42 of Denver’s 134 yards in the first half and Hillman couldn’t maintain that productivity as the primary option in the second half.
Hillman was held to 34 yards on 13 carries in the second half and had five attempts of one yard or less. In obvious run situations, the Broncos offensive line couldn’t create space and Hillman didn’t appear to have his usual bursts of speed. On 19 carries on the day, he had just three that went for more than four yards.
Postgame, Hillman couldn’t identify what went wrong in the second half. “I have to go back and look at the tape and see” he said. “Then we’ll have to make corrections so it doesn’t happen again.”
