ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Consider it their football conundrum, because what has been good for the Denver Broncos on offense is not what they’ve been able to do for much of this troubled season.

Fact is, after 12 games and a current eight-game losing streak, they are a far better team when they bulk up and run the ball than when they don't. But they’ve trailed so early, so often in their games, they have been forced to move away from hanging in on the run game.

The Broncos have had just three games this season where they have run the ball more than they’ve thrown it -- all three of their wins. They haven’t run the ball more than they’ve thrown it in a game since their Oct. 1 win over the Oakland Raiders.

The Broncos' offense has been relatively one-dimensional, relying heavily on the arm of Trevor Siemian, after consistently falling behind so early in games. AP Photo/Lynne Sladky

“I don’t think we ever intend to abandon anything,’’ offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave said this week. “We want to be balanced and make ourselves difficult to defend by being balanced like that. It goes by the specific game and specific defense.’’

It’s not that the Broncos don’t know they’re better running the ball. But their own turnovers and the points their opponents have scored as a result of those turnovers have hurt them, so they can't take a more composed approach. They have trailed at the end of the first quarter six times this season and trailed at halftime eight times. They have lost all of those games.

In their nine losses, they have held the lead for a total of just over 20 minutes, or a little over two minutes per loss. In those circumstances the Broncos have shied away from heavier formations -- two backs or two tight ends -- in favor of their three-wide receiver sets and for a smattering of plays, their four-wide receiver looks.

“We’ve tried to do things but we’ve had times when we couldn’t stay with the run game,’’ coach Vance Joseph said. “ … We continue to hope for a clean game where we can stay with that.’’

This past Sunday in Miami, the Broncos’ only scoring drive -- a field goal drive that ended the first quarter and opened the second quarter -- was one of their few possessions of the game where they were in their heavier personnel groupings more than the three-wide receiver set (they were in three-wide just one snap of the scoring drive).

But after a Dolphins touchdown drive and a Trevor Siemian interception that was returned for a touchdown gave the Dolphins a 16-3 lead, the Broncos largely shied away from anything but their three-wide receiver set. It mirrored the reaction to turnovers in other losses (seven rushing attempts in the second half in a shutout loss to the Chargers; three called runs in the fourth quarter in the Oct. 20 loss to the Chiefs).

The problem is the Broncos have consistently had their most issues in a three-wide receiver set. In the past 10 games -- the Broncos are 1-9 in those games -- 27 of the Broncos’ 30 sacks allowed have come when they have been in a three- or four-wide receiver set and 13 of their 14 interceptions over that span have been out of a three-wide set.

After the loss in Miami, Joseph again said circumstances drove them from the run game.

“Offensively, I thought we ran the ball well,’’ he said earlier in the week. “That’s a really stout front. We moved them early on. But again, the games that we’ve been in down by two and three scores, we couldn’t stay with the run game. As far as the pass game, that wasn’t good. We had three interceptions, one for a touchdown. We missed some throws. We had trouble separating from that secondary. We had trouble with protections, also. I think all three levels with the pass game wasn’t good enough, but the running game was good.’’

During the current losing streak, the Broncos have lost to four of the bottom five teams in run defense in the league -- Cincinnati (28th), Kansas City (30th), the Chargers (31st) and the Giants (32nd). They didn’t run the ball more than they passed it in any of those games as they had 34, 31, 19 and 17 rushing attempts in those games while they attempted 42, 36, 35 and 54 passes, respectively, in those games.