The Denver Broncos completed their sweep of the Raiders for the first time since Peyton Manning suited up. Here are my thoughts, opinions, and analysis on a sloppy outing that the team persevered through.
There is absolutely no reason whatsoever for the Las Vegas Raiders to have kept such a long streak of winning at home against us for eight long years. Sure, our teams have sucked over that stretch, but many times the Raiders were a worse team.
That’s what division rivalries are about, though. This is also a big part of why I love how the NFL has their teams split into divisions and have you play each opponent in your division twice. The Broncos / Raiders rivalry is a storied one and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if behind closed doors Mark Davis offered bonuses to his team for each win they get against the Denver Broncos.
This was the Raider’s 2024 Super Bowl, to be fair. There aren’t many games left on the schedule where you’d think they might have a decent chance of winning. I honestly think the Broncos coaching staff as a whole were not well prepared for the Raiders throwing the kitchen sink at us this game. Because we weren’t ready for it, they made us look pretty silly at times.
But hey, at the end of the day, it did absolutely nothing for them. They still lost like a bunch of chumps. Finally, order in Broncos Country is being restored.
Offense
This was a fairly frustrating game from an offensive perspective. It looked to me like the Broncos came in with a fairly predictable offensive playsheet that the Raiders had well-scouted. In the first half of the game, any pass close to the line of scrimmage was obliterated. The Raiders were blitzing a lot and the offense didn’t have great answers.
Luckily, the team eventually turned the corner on those troubles and started producing with some really good play calls.
Sean Payton abandoned the run for no good reason as well. There were two productive runners on the roster, and neither of them got the majority of the carries (more on that below).
I do want to give Payton and the offense a hat-tip for the gutsy call on 3rd and 1 to play-action pass for a deep crosser to Sutton. That’s a big-boy NFL play call and it is good to see a team who is fearless about dialing up that kind of play.
Also, post-game Payton talked some nonsense about personnel forcing them to throw instead of run. That’s absolute bullshit. It isn’t about production at that point. It is about the clock. Send in your big package with Audric Estime and get to thumping (it is a big part of why you drafted him). Passing 3 and out for a whopping 15 seconds of the clock was about the dumbest thing I’ve seen this NFL season.
Quarterbacks
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Bo Nix just keeps getting better as the season wears on and I am 100% here for it. His first touchdown pass was one hell of a ballsy touchdown throw that showed the maturity of Bo Nix’s game. They got Sutton singled up outside and Nix trusted his guy to win with a perfectly timed and placed jump ball pass in the end zone.
His second touchdown leveraged his ability as a runner to fake out the Raider defense and suck the safeties up. It was a play-action run using only himself as the whole line bailed right and he acted like a runner for a split second before he zinged the pass to Sutton in the back of the end zone.
Line
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Mike McGlinchey had a tough assignment being across from Maxx Crosby early and often. He didn’t make things for himself easier with 2 holding penalties early along with a false start.
Overall, our line had plenty of ups and downs in the game. The Raiders had a great plan of attack and the line just didn’t seem to be able to get much traction run blocking at all (though I’d still argue at some level that may have to do more with who we are giving touches to than how the line blocked up front).
Running Backs
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Jaleel McLaughlin had some big gains early, then seemed to disappear for a while until getting some more touches in the 2nd half. He averaged 6.3 yards per carry, yet only got 7 attempts.
Audric Estime who has had a lot of up and down to his season also ran well with an average of 5 yards per carry on just 3 attempts.
But for some reason, Sean Payton kept trotting out Javonte Williams and handed him the ball 8 times for a total of -2 yards averaging -0.3 yards per carry. I’m going to say it again: Williams is washed. I don’t care that he flashes every 3rd or 4th game. He’s far too often looking lost, lacking power, and choosing to run into tackles instead of toward daylight. At some point, we need to stop caring about his ability as an outlet receiver and start caring about how pathetic our run game looks with him getting carries most of the time.
Receivers
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Courtland Sutton needs more targets when he’s singled up. He’s so good at out-jumping his defender, blocking out, and timing his jumps perfectly to be in a position to win. On 3rd and 5 he ran a comeback route perfectly to get the conversion. The 2nd half was a Courtland Sutton show to be fair. He ended the game with 8 receptions for 92 yards and 2 touchdowns. It is worth noting that he had one really bad drop late in the game as well, but we overlook those when a player was likely one of the biggest reasons this team won the game.
Devaughn Vele was right behind Sutton with 80 yards on 6 receptions. He was fire at the start of the game with big play after big play to get the Broncos chunks of yardage on some really well-run routes.
Troy Franklin was just plain clueless as to where the deep pass was early. He had the same problem a few plays later. This team either needs to get a coach who can unscrew Franklin’s head when it comes to deep passes or stop wasting plays on deep passes to guys who can’t make the play. I’m all about developing young players, but at some point, we need to focus on winning games more than trying to create teaching opportunities (if that is what happening…for all I know he’s killing it in practice and the lights are too big for him).
Defense
The defense clutched it out many times in this game and did a lot of bending, but not breaking. Vance Joseph honestly did the best he could missing some pretty key pieces to his defense.
Going into the game, I was pretty worried to see Zach Allen listed as out, and for good reason. The defensive front is just not the same without him on the field. They figured it out by the end of the game (next man up and all of that), but they for sure missed Allen.
Riley Moss going down was a really big deal as well. He was playing immaculate football in the game and was shutting his guy down just as well as Patrick Surtain II was.
But credit to the defense and coaching staff. They rotated guys in and played inspired football to get the win in a pretty shaky situation up until the last 30 seconds of play.
Front 7
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Nik Bonitto, I owe you such a big apology. This offseason I bemoaned our pass rush and quality of players at the edge and could not have been more wrong. You have developed into a dangerous game-wrecking force. Pass me a plate of crow. Bonitto’s strip-sack was a key play of the game and got him to 10 sacks on the season, which is rarified air in the league with only 4 players having that many to date.
Jonah Ellis gives up two passes that were honestly just really well-thrown passes. I’m encouraged that in both cases, Ellis was soundly in a position to make a play. He had a nice sack on the game, a tackle for loss, and a hurry as well on just 24 snaps. The future for the Broncos is bright at edge.
Malcolm Roach was one of the defensive linemen that really stepped up to help the team missing one of their playmaking leaders. He had a sack, TFL, 2 hurries, and a fumble recovery.
Secondary
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Brandon Jones couldn’t have had a much better game, honestly. He defended two passes and got a key interception on the day. He’s playing such good football and is the best playmaker we have at safety by a mile.
Patrick Surtain II covering Bowers is a very smart move by Vance Joseph. It paid off early on 3rd and 2 where Surtain stayed in Bowers’ hip pocket to break up the play. Bowers is the Raiders’ most dangerous weapon and the Broncos held him to just 4 receptions on 10 targets for a measly 38 yards. Surtain wasn’t always on him but had him in many of the key passing situations.
Ja’Quan McMillian has put a lot of poor coverage film out there lately. I almost wonder if he’s dinged up a bit and is having to adjust a bit (that’s pure supposition on my part, nothing I’ve seen clear evidence of). Regardless, he had a really costly pass interference late in the game where he needs to play the ball instead of squaring into the chest of the receiver.
He had some balls completed on him that he was a step too late on as well.
Special Teams
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I gave my game ball this week to Wil Lutz with an inspired kicking performance going 5 for 5 on field goals (two of them 50+ yarders) and 2 of 2 on extra points. He’s really focused and is such a reliable weapon for this team which is a really big deal in a sloppy game like this.
Outside of our place kicking, the special teams had a really rough day. They had a serious breakdown with return coverage giving up a 60-yard return. They were also completely unaware of the fake punt and gave up a 34-yard pass by a punter.
Final Thoughts
I can not help but be the same guy I’ve been for decades watching this team and thinking that we need to strap in. Getting to the playoffs is not an easy thing. We’re most likely going to make it this year, but I want to see this team do some damage in the postseason.
We can’t do that if we abandon the run because one guy had a horrible game.
We can’t do that if we want to stat-pad our rookie QB late when running the ball in every way, shape, and form is the superior choice with less than four minutes to go in the game and the opponent having two timeouts.
Hopefully, Sean Payton and his coaching staff will get this nonsense out of their system. If the Broncos play a game like this against the Los Angel4es Chargers or Kansas City Chiefs, we will lose handily.
This should be a wake-up call for the team. They were playing losing football in the first half and it wasn’t just the players playing poorly. Make no mistake, the coaches were out-coached in that first half as well.
On the bright side, I still hold firmly to the idea that we’re playing with house money this season. Whatever happens, I’m pleased with this team, the coaches, and the organization. This was a hell of a gutsy win that required this team to have a “no quit” attitude which is a nice change of pace from what we’ve seen in years past.