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This game between the Oakland Raiders and the Denver Broncos started out very badly for Raiders fans. The Broncos started out with the ball and were utterly unstoppable. They went 8 plays for 84 yards and scored their touchdown on an 11 yard run by Devontae Booker. Very quickly it was 7-0 Denver with the drive taking less than 5 minutes, though it would prove to be the only score of the 1st quarter.
Matt McGloin's Raiders offense failed on their first two drives while the defense did stop one Denver drive in between them for the rest of the 1st quarter action. The highlight from the offense so far was Broncos villain cornerback Aqib Talib intentionally ripping Michael Crabtree's gold chain from his neck, just another absurd move from one of the worst humans in the NFL.
The 2nd quarter began similar to the 1st quarter with Denver putting another drive together for points, though this time the Raiders defense came up with the stop in the red zone to keep them to just getting a field goal. They actually only got down that far thanks to the Broncos longest run of the year, a 64 yard run by Justin Forsett who should have been tackled several times along the way. The 22 yard field goal made the score 10-0 Denver.
Oakland's response to the field goal was to go three and out on their next possession, however their defense did much better with a big 3rd and 1 stop to force a Denver punt. It didn't matter though because Matt McGloin couldn't complete any passes, they only got a first down because of a roughing the passer penalty. The hit should have had McGloin removed from the game because he was obviously hurting afterwards but he was left in anyway and failed to get another first down on the drive.
The booming punt from Marquette King was caught at the 1 by the Broncos return man who ended up having a big return of 25 yards with a 15 yard late hit penalty on the Raiders tacked on. It looked like the Raiders came up with a big stop to force a 50 yard field goal but an offensive holding penalty was accepted in the hopes of pushing them out of field goal range. Unfortunately, the screen pass the Broncos ran was set up perfectly and Booker ran it in for a 43 yard touchdown play to make the score 17-0 Denver.
Matt McGloin did not come out for the Raiders next drive due to being injured on the previous drive, so it was Connor Cook who came out instead for the Raiders 2 minute drill. Cook's throws were on the mark but Clive Walford dropped the perfect pass on 2nd down and then they ran it on 3rd and 5 leading to yet another punt. They only used 30 seconds for the entire drive.
Luckily, Denver didn't seem eager to try and add onto their 17-0 lead despite having just under a minute and a half to go with 2 timeouts at their disposal. They didn't get any points, though they did get close to a long touchdown bomb that was just barely overthrown. The clock ended up being run out so the teams went to the half with the 17-0 score. Oakland will get the ball first in the 2nd half.
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