GLENDALE, Ariz. — The Arizona Cardinals can’t run the football. The Denver Broncos can’t stop the run.

So maybe the ground game will be the deciding factor when these two struggling teams meet on Thursday night.

“I’ll tell you this - and I’m a firm believer in this - stopping the run and running the football allows a team to control the game depending on who is doing that the best,” Broncos coach Vance Joseph said.

Arizona (1-5) ranks dead last in the NFL in total offense and in rushing, averaging 64 yards per game on the ground. Denver (2-4) is last in rushing defense, allowing a whopping 161.3 yards per game.

“We need to do a much better job up front as far as blocking, executing our assignments,” Cardinals coach Steve Wilks, then referring to running back David Johnson: “We need to move him around a little bit more. Try to find ways to get him out into space.”

Denver has allowed 593 yards rushing in its last two games. Two of the opposing running backs, the New York Jets’ Isaiah Crowell and the Los Angeles Rams’ Todd Gurley, topped 200 yards rushing, something that’s never happened against the same team in NFL history.