Week 7 Thursday Night Football Statistical Review: Broncos dominate Saints from the start

• Broncos' running game takes over: Denver topped 200 rushing yards against the Saints, led by Javonte Williams and his two scores.

• Injuries keep Saints' offense at bay: Without their starting quarterback and top two wide receivers, it was a long night for New Orleans' offense.

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Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

The Denver Broncos improved to 4-3 by winning 33-10 against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football in Week 7.

Game Summary

According to PFF's noise-canceled score metric, the Broncos just about dominated the game from the beginning, as the Saints couldn’t move the ball at all. Their only red-zone drive came in garbage time near the end of the game.

Passing Summary

Despite blowing out their opponent, the Broncos' passing offense generated negative expected points — and that’s including the lucky circumstance that Tyrann Mathieu dropped a sure-fire interception at the end of the first half. However, they dinked and dunked their way to enough first downs to clearly separate from the Saints' passing offense.

Receiving Summary

Without their top two receivers, it was a long night for the Saints to try and rack up yardage through the air.

On the Broncos' side, it sticks out that Courtland Sutton received zero targets on 28 routes, the latter being clearly the most among all Broncos skill position players. His routes were most likely out of rookie quarterback Bo Nix’s comfort zone, which is mostly the short area of the field.

Rushing Summary

The Broncos' rushing offense was clearly the positive part of their game, but the Saints' defense might have played into that, as well. After allowing more than 250 rushing yards and 0.37 EPA per carry against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Saints allowed more than 200 rushing yards again, as the Broncos generated 0.24 EPA per rush attempt.