ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — For the Denver Broncos, it wasn’t just that the St. Louis Rams beat them, 22-7, on Sunday. It was that they beat them up.

The Rams’ defensive line dominated the Broncos’ offensive front, closing holes on the rare Broncos runs and hitting quarterback Peyton Manning five times when he dropped back to pass, which included plays that resulted in two sacks, an interception and a holding penalty.

Their aggressive defensive backs hounded Broncos receivers, and safety Rodney McLeod knocked Emmanuel Sanders out of the game in the third quarter.

And finally, running back Tre Mason burst through Broncos tacklers to become just the fifth runner to gain 100 yards on Denver in the last three seasons. Thirty of his 113 yards came after he bounced off Broncos safety Quinton Carter for extra yardage on his two longest runs of the day.

There was little that the Broncos could point to as a positive after the loss, which saw them held to single digits for the first time in the regular season since Tim Tebow’s last start, on Jan. 1, 2012. Their scoreless second half was also the club’s first since Nov. 15, 2009, when Chris Simms replaced injured starter Kyle Orton after halftime.

“We’ve got to tighten the screws up as a team. We didn’t play well on either side of the ball,” said defensive tackle Terrance Knighton.

Manning put the blame squarely upon himself. He threw for 389 yards on 34-of-54 passing, but it was one of the most hollow performances of his 17-year career, as most of the yardage came outside of the St. Louis 40-yard line.

The Broncos did not run one play inside the Rams’ red zone.

“I feel like I didn’t do my job well enough to get us past that to get us down in there,” said Manning. We had a good red-zone plan, and I don’t think we ever got to call any red-zone plays.

“When your defense is holding them to just field goals and you have the chance to score points, that’s on us. We’ve got to do a better job scoring points.”

In his time in Denver, the Broncos have never done worse than they did in St. Louis.

The Broncos are pass-first team, but the extreme to which they went in the second half Sunday was over the top. They called just 10 run plays — one of which was a kneel-down at the end of the first half — against 56 pass calls.

“There’s no doubt that to be the kind of team we want to be, we have to run the ball more,” said Broncos coach John Fox. “There’s a mindset and mentality whether you’re on defense trying to stop the run, whether you’re on offense running the football. No doubt it’s something that we have to do more and we have to execute better.”

Denver closed the game with 26 consecutive pass plays. The Broncos’ last run came with 7:49 left in the third quarter, when they still trailed just 13-7.

“With nine or 10 attempts, I would agree with you. There’s no doubt that to be the kind of team we want to be, we have to run the ball more,” Fox said. “There’s a mindset and mentality whether you’re on defense trying to stop the run, whether you’re on offense running the football. No doubt it’s something that we have to do more and we have to execute better.”

Personnel issues had something to do with it; with Julius Thomas out because of a sprained ankle and Virgil Green inactive because of a calf injury, the Broncos were down to one healthy tight end: Jacob Tamme, known more for his pass-catching skills than his blocking.

But the Rams were able to overplay the pass without the threat of the run, and didn’t have to take any play-action seriously.

“We’ve got to do a better job of running the ball, even when we’re behind,” Tamme said. “I think we’ve got to do a better job of staying two-dimensional and opening up some holes so we can show some run, even when we’re behind there.”

MEDICAL WATCH: Sanders will go through the league-mandated post-concussion protocol after Rodney McLeod’s third-quarter on him knocked him out of Sunday’s game. … RB Montee Ball returned after missing five weeks because of a groin strain, but left after four plays when he re-aggravated the injury. He could be sidelined for multiple weeks.

REPORT CARD VS. RAMS

PASSING OFFENSE: C-minus — Peyton Manning racked up the yardage, but outside of a 42-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders because of blown coverage, did little once the Broncos crossed into Rams territory. Manning and the offense struggled on third downs, and his two fourth-quarter interceptions sealed the defeat.

RUSHING OFFENSE: D-minus — It would be more appropriate to give a grade of “incomplete,” since the opportunities to run were scarce. C.J. Anderson carried the football just nine times for 29 yards, and after gaining 12 yards on the first two plays of a third-quarter possession that began with the Broncos down, 13-7, didn’t take another handoff for the last quarter and a half.

PASS DEFENSE: C-minus — An inability to prevent the early deep pass set up Shaun Hill to dink and dunk his way through the last three quarters of the game. Hill beat Aqib Talib and Bradley Roby for passes of 33 and 63 yards in the first quarter, and then settled in to dicing up the Broncos with short passes that Denver couldn’t stop. The chance for a big play in the pass rush went astray when the fumbled football forced by DeMarcus Ware on a sack bounced squarely back into Hill’s grasp.

RUSH DEFENSE: C-minus — The Broncos came into the game with the league’s best run defense and just four 100-yard individual rushing games allowed since the start of the 2012 season. Tre Mason became the fifth, running outside and throughout the Broncos for 113 yards on 29 carries. Most damaging of all was Mason’s yardage after contact, which included 30 yards on his two longest runs after Quinton Carter missed tackles both times.

SPECIAL TEAMS: D — It is clear that the Broncos do not trust Brandon McManus from long range, bypassing two potential field-goal attempts of 50-plus yards — in the pristine conditions of a dome — to go for it once and punt another time. Kickoff returns continue to be a problem; Andre Caldwell did not make it past the Denver 15-yard-line on either kickoff he chose to run back.

COACHING: C-minus — The Broncos looked flat and unprepared in St. Louis. The offense never attempted to create any sense of balance, even though it had used an offensive tackle as a tight end extensively in previous games, so that would have been an option to help galvanize the running game in spite of the injuries at the position.