The Broncos (7-5) likely will keep their 3-4 look in mothballs when Kansas City (2-10) visits Invesco Field at Mile High and stick with the base 4-3 look they have employed since the bye weekend.

"Yeah," Slowik, the Broncos' defensive coordinator, said with a wide smile. "I don't know how much of that you'll see."

The Chiefs, running extensively against the Broncos' three-man front Sept. 28, managed 213 yards on the ground, and all but 15 came from backfield workhorse Larry Johnson.

It was a season low point for Denver - that is, until the Broncos went to New England three weeks later and gave up 257 rushing yards, including a whopping 10 carries of 10-plus yards.

Denver then increased its padded practices and simplified the defensive scheme. And the results against the run in the past five games largely have been positive.

Still, the Broncos rank 28th against the run at 144.3 yards per game.

In the seven games through the New England loss Oct. 20, Denver yielded 154.6 yards and 5.4 yards per attempt. Since then, those totals have dropped to 129.8 and 4.2.

"I think we're just hitting better," Slowik said. "Guys are hitting their blocks - the whole defense. The defensive line is more physical because we've gone through it in pads and have been able to practice it. The tackling has been more physical. Do we miss tackles at times? Sure. But overall, it's more physical.

"I think the pad practices have made a huge difference because we're able to see," he added. "When you don't have pads on, you tag a guy or reach out and say, 'He would have had him.' He wouldn't have had him until you see it here, wrapping him up and so on and so forth."

But the biggest bugaboo continues to be big plays, even in recent weeks. There have been seven runs of 20-plus yards in the five games since the bye, compared with nine in the previous seven games. That includes touchdown runs of 59 and 29 yards by the Jets' Thomas Jones on Sunday.

In fact, Denver's problems against the rush almost singularly can be traced to allowing breakout runs. While 306 of the carries against Denver this season have netted 757 yards, a 2.5-yards-per-carry average, the other 47 attempts have gone for at least 10 yards.

That means a whopping 974 yards and seven touchdowns emanate from just those 47 plays. Broken down further, that's 56.3 percent of the total rushing yards against Denver this season on only 13.4 percent of the rushing attempts.

"When we're playing good, solid run defense - against Jacksonville, Miami, the Jets - 95 percent of the runs we're playing really well and hitting and forming up, and one breaks and, bam, it's 50 yards. We have to eliminate that, and then we're where we want to be," Slowik said.

"But until that's corrected, it's hard. That's points on the board. As opposed to having 60 percent efficiency and productivity against the run, we're now maybe 95. But those last five, though, we can't let score."

All those long runs have translated into an overall 4.9 per-carry average, which would be a franchise worst, higher than the 4.7 figure Denver put up in 1967.

The longest gain by a Broncos opponent this season belongs to Johnson, who sprinted 65 yards on the second play of the first Denver-Kansas City meeting. And Johnson's 198 yards that day still represent the best performance in the AFC this season.

Johnson has made a habit of burning Denver's defense. In eight appearances, and only four starts, he has five 100-yard games against the Broncos.

Dating to 2006, Denver is 4-14 when allowing a running back to reach triple figures, including losses in nine of the past 10 games.

But that single victory came Sunday against the Jets, who got 138 yards and, yes, two long touchdowns from Jones but lost 34-17.

"They've really made it difficult to run the ball," Chiefs coach Herm Edwards said in assessing the differences between Denver's defense now and the one he saw more than two months ago. "Schematically, they're playing their gaps well and the linebackers are filling them."

Kansas City ran Johnson 24 times for 92 yards in Sunday's victory at Oakland.

Of late, the Chiefs have employed a modified approach by spreading the field, mostly out of base personnel. The goal is to bring defenders outside the area around the line of scrimmage and, in effect, give Johnson more room to roam on his initial move.

But the Broncos present a different look, too. Only four starters in the first Kansas City game were in the starting lineup Sunday.

Their attitude to stop the run is more readily apparent. And they've ditched that 3-4.

"Players, we're creatures of habit, and when you've been doing something so long, going back to OTAs (organized team activities), minicamp, training camp - the 4-3 is all we knew," defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban said. "And I just think we're more comfortable adapting with that 4-3 scheme rather than going to a whole new front."

INFOBOX 1

Run stoppers

How the Broncos have fared trying to stop the run since Mike Shanahan took over as coach:

Year Att. Yards Avg.

1995 451 1,895 4.2

1996 345 1,331 3.9

1997 381 1,803 4.7

1998 356 1,287 3.6

1999 440 1,737 3.9

2000 344 1,598 4.6

2001 406 1,492 3.7

2002 379 1,489 3.9

2003 379 1,605 4.2

2004 396 1,512 3.8

2005 344 1,363 4.0

2006 447 1,813 4.1

2007 501 2,282 4.6

*2008 353 1,731 4.9

INFOBOX 2

Rushing yards piling up

The Broncos defense is on pace to allow 2,308 rushing yards this season. How such an effort would rank in franchise history:

Year Yards

1988 2,538

2008 *2,308

2007 2,282

1960 2,145

1980 2,117

1967 2,076

1964 2,064

1966 2,029

1987 2,017

1981 2,005