The Broncos beat the Raiders 34-18 in their 1977 throwback units in front of legends such as DeMarcus Ware, Champ Bailey, and two former Broncos who were inducted into the Broncos Ring of Fame at halftime today in Riley Odoms and Steve Foley. Denver broke an 8-game losing streak against the Raiders, which began in 2020. Here's what transpired:
The game started far from pretty for Broncos fans. It began with the Raiders scoring on their opening possession as Minshew connected with the Raiders young stud of a rookie Tight End for 57 yards. The Raiders then went down the field in their next drive but had to settle for a field goal, putting them up 10-0. The Broncos offense struggled to get much going early on and faced a 2nd and 38 in the early stages of the second quarter because of a combination of the offense not being able to block Maxx Crosby and offensive penalties. They did manage to get some of the yards back in that drive and put themselves in FG range. They would then cut the lead to 3. The Raiders got the ball back and once again drove down the field with ease. They got down to the Broncos' 5-yard line, and then the game turned.
Minshew rolled out to his left off play action and threw the ball a little too high for Bowers, and it ended up in the hands of Surtain he took it 100 yards the other way, and the game was tied 10-10. Instead of the game being 13-3 or 17-3. the game was tied, and the momentum was completely sapped from the Raiders side. From that moment on, it was all Denver. The first half would end with Denver hitting a FG to go up 13-10. Despite the Broncos' offense struggling in the first half, Denver was up at the half, and that had to give Denver some confidence going into the second half because they looked like a completely different team in half #2. After no scores in each of the first two possessions in the first half, the Broncos got good field position off a Marvin Mimms return that got them to midfield. Then, from there, with a mix of runs and quick throws, The Broncos scored off a nice effort from McLaughlin that put them up 20-10. In the next Raiders possession, Minshew would be picked off by Riley Moss for his first career int. It was a sweet play by the second-year corner, and that put Denver in a good position again.
On the drive off that turnover, Denver missed on a golden opportunity when Troy Franklin dropped a deep pass from Nix as he was running free and had more than 5 yards of separation in the end zone. After that play, Nix and Payton had a fiery exchange. It's unclear why they were upset about, but Nix had a lot to say to Payton. The anger didn't linger as a few moments later, it cut to Nix and Payton having a cordial conversation about something, so I don't think that exchange was a big deal. I love seeing my franchise QB showing that he cares, and every once in a while, it's not a bad thing to stand up to your HC. Seeing that fire in Nix was nice to see because, after that moment, he scored a rushing TD on a QB sneak and threw a nice floating TD to Josh Reynolds in the back of the endzone that helped extend the lead from 20-10 to 34-10. The Raiders would end up getting an aggressive TD to make it 34-18, but Denver is now the winner of 3, and all of a sudden, this team looks like they can do something in the year 2024.
Key Takeaways:
Vance Joseph has that defense playing incredible football week after week and today was no different with them logging 3 sacks, 3 INTs, and 1 TD. PS2 is easily a top 3 corner in this league and I don't think it's debatable
Javonte Williams looks more and more like his old self, as he had 101 yards of total offense. Looks like he has his burst back 2 years removed from his injury
Bo Nix statistically had a good game as he had a total of 3 TDs with 19/27 for 206 yards passing. he looked a lot better as the game went on but was still a little inconsistent in terms of his footwork and accuracy. But he continues to show signs week in and week out, which is all you can ask for as a fan. winning 3 of your first 5 NFL games is not bad at all.
Great win and let's look to keep it going next week vs LA!
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