Raiders with Mile High crash to earth in Denver

The Broncos got on the board first and it took them just one drive. They drove 74 yards on the opening drive to score a touchdown. The Raiders had no semblance of a pass rush on the drive which allowed Peyton Manning to pick them apart to go 6 of 8 for 74 yards including the touchdown pass to tight end Joel Dreessen.

The Raiders came back to score as well. Although, it wasn't a touchdown. It was set up by a 31-yard pass from Palmer to Marcel Reece and helped set up a Janikowski 38-yard field goal.

The Broncos looked to be headed for another touchdown when Demaryius Thomas took a short pass 40 yards into Raiders territory. But while trying to switch hands with the ball, Thomas dropped it and the Raiders recovered to delay the route.

The Broncos would get tricky a bit later and tried a fake field goal but for one of the few times in this game, the Raiders were ready for it and covered it well.

The Raiders then drove into field goal rang themselves thanks in part to 37-yard sideline pass from Palmer to Denarius Moore. They couldn't finish off the drive with a touchdown but added another three points to head into halftime down 10-6.

After halftime, it all came crashing down on the Raiders. That four point deficit turned into an 11 point deficit in one drive. Manning was a perfect 5 for 5 on the drive including a 29-yard pass and a 17-yard pass for the touchdown.

Then after a three and out by the Raiders, the Shane Lechler punt attempt was blocked to give the Broncos the ball at the Raiders' 18-yard line. And the Broncos would score a touchdown on three plays.

That lead would continue to get bigger and bigger for the Broncos who scored on every single second half drive. The first three drives went for touchdowns and that final two ending in field goals.

The pass rush was the biggest glaring difference in this game. The Raiders got almost no pressure on Peyton Manning the whole game and finished without a sack. On the other side, the Broncos were all over Carson Palmer on nearly every snap. They had 15 hurries and three sacks.

The most telling stat in this game is the Broncos didn't punt once. Not once.

But it didn't stop with the pass rush. The Raiders were beaten in every facet of the game. The contrast in the run game was laughable. Broncos running back Willis McGahee had 112 yards on 19 carries (5.8 yards per carry). Darren McFadden had just 34 yards on 13 carries (2.6 yards per carry).

The play calling ranged from suspect to downright ridiculous. I lost count of how many times I saw the Raiders go short in long yardage and throw long when they needed short yardage. The results were ranged from inconsequential to disastrous.

This game mimicked the big loss in Miami pretty closely. In that game the Raiders were actually up 10-7 over the Dolphins. But the Raiders scored a total of three points in the second half and by the time it was over the Raiders had been blown out by the Dolphins, 35-13.

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Box Score

Oakland Raiders (1-2-0) Denver Broncos (1-2-0)

Raiders

Passing CP/AT YDS TD INT
C. Palmer 19/34 202 0 0

Rushing ATT YDS TD LG
D. McFadden 13 34 0 8
M. Goodson 3 22 0 13

Receiving REC YDS TD LG
D. Moore 4 71 0 37
M. Reece 5 54 0 31
J. Criner 2 29 0 16
B. Myers 1 22 0 22
D. Hagan 2 18 0 10
D. Ausberry 1 9 0 9
D. McFadden 1 4 0 4
M. Goodson 3 -5 0 0

Fumbles FUM LOST REC YDS
C. Palmer 1 0 0 0
L. Houston 0 0 1 0
W. Smith 0 0 1 0

Kicking FG LG XP PTS
S. Janikowski 2/2 38 0/0 6

Punting NO AVG I20 LG
S. Lechler 7 43.4 1 68

Kickoff Returns NO AVG TD LG

Punt Returns NO AVG TD LG

Defense T-A SCK INT FF
T. Branch 8-1 0.0 0 0
M. Giordano 8-0 0.0 0 0
R. McClain 6-2 0.0 0 0
P. Wheeler 6-3 0.0 0 0
P. Lee 5-0 0.0 0 0
M. Shaughnessy 5-1 0.0 0 0
J. Hanson 3-2 0.0 0 0
L. Houston 3-4 0.0 0 0
D. Bryant 2-0 0.0 0 0
M. Huff 2-2 0.0 0 0
J. Crawford 1-1 0.0 0 0
R. Seymour 1-1 0.0 0 0
T. Kelly 0-3 0.0 0 0

Broncos

Passing CP/AT YDS TD INT
P. Manning 30/38 338 3 0
M. Prater 0/1 0 0 0

Rushing ATT YDS TD LG
W. McGahee 19 112 1 24
R. Hillman 10 31 0 12
A. Caldwell 1 14 0 14
L. Ball 6 10 0 4
P. Manning 1 -1 0 -1
B. Osweiler 1 -1 0 -1

Receiving REC YDS TD LG
D. Thomas 5 103 0 40
E. Decker 7 79 1 19
J. Tamme 5 38 0 10
R. Hillman 2 32 0 29
B. Stokley 2 32 0 26
W. McGahee 6 23 0 9
J. Dreessen 2 17 1 22T
L. Ball 1 14 1 14T

Fumbles FUM LOST REC YDS
D. Thomas 1 1 0 0
E. Dumervil 0 0 0 0
Kicking FG LG XP PTS
M. Prater 3/3 53 4/4 13

Punting NO AVG I20 LG

Kickoff Returns NO AVG TD LG
O. Bolden 1 16 0 16

Punt Returns NO AVG TD LG
J. Leonhard 5 8 0 16

Defense T-A SCK INT FF
C. Bailey 5-0 0.0 0 0
R. Moore 5-1 0.0 0 0
V. Miller 4-1 0.0 0 0
M. Adams 3-1 0.0 0 0
K. Brooking 3-2 0.0 0 0
C. Harris 3-0 1.0 0 0
E. Dumervil 2-2 1.5 0 1
K. Vickerson 2-0 0.0 0 0
D. Bruton 1-0 0.0 0 0
T. Porter 1-0 0.0 0 0
D. Trevathan 1-0 0.0 0 0
D. Wolfe 1-1 0.0 0 0
W. Woodyard 1-5 0.5 0 0
R. Ayers 0-1 0.0 0 0
M. Unrein 0-1 0.0 0 0