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.