Denver’s eighth straight win is its most in the history of the series against the Raiders, but bore no resemblance to the previous six blowouts authored by Manning since he joined the Broncos. “Today they outplayed us and won”. That’s just two wins behind Brett Favre for the all-time wins mark.
Advertisement
The Oakland Raiders go into their bye smarting from the realization that they held Peyton Manning without a touchdown, finally figured out how to cover a tight end and went toe-to-toe with a team that has beaten them soundly for the past three years, only to come up short. Going up against a stout Broncos front-seven, Del Rio’s group managed just 65 yards on 25 carries for a putrid 2.6 yards per carry average. They must be able to beat good teams with winning records in order to be considered a real threat. Offense needs to put something together. It’s not there yet.
“We want to play better offensively”. Kubiak has stated he wants to see Hillman get the ball more and that could start against the Cleveland Browns.
Maybe the best way to say it is that over the course of an afternoon, we saw both the promise and the peril of Carr.
The results were mixed.
A few bloggers are suggesting the main culprit is Manning’s inability to play under center and roll back to pass. His insistence on staying in the shotgun or the pistol inhibits the running backs’ ability to read the holes and gain bigger chunks of yardage behind a young and inexperienced offensive line. But an end-zone interception he threw under pressure from Malcolm Smith was costly, and prevented the Broncos from entering halftime with a lead. But the Panthers aren’t the story in the NFC South. They are 4-0 by beating up on teams with a combined 5-15 record.
Another week, another defensive hero for the undefeated Denver Broncos.
Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning threw for 266 yards with two interceptions and defeated the Raiders for the 10th straight time, tying his career high for victories against an opponent. Dalton has completed 67.2 percent of his passes through four games for 1,187 yards, with nine touchdowns and only a single interception. Manning has a lot of that on his side, whereas Osweiler has thrown only 30 passes in the regular season since Denver drafted him in the second round of the 2012 draft.
While the offense sputtered, Denver’s defense was the difference-maker. That usually is a gift-wrapped touchdown for a Manning-led offense. The defense will continue to do their best and create game-changing plays, but Wade Phillips and Co. can only do so much.
The Raiders had a chance to retake the lead early in the fourth quarter after Woodson’s second interception, but Janikowski missed a 40-yard field goal, pushing it wide left. However, the Broncos continually failed in scoring range, settling for three Brandon McManus field goals and throwing two interceptions in Raider territory. He also came within inches of a perfectly executed pooch punt out of a field-goal formation that Aaron Brewer couldn’t quite corral.
Advertisement
With a rushing attack that doesn’t always work, and a quarterback who’s definitely on his way toward riding off into the sunset, teams like the Raiders can definitely hang with this team if they don’t get in the end zone more often.
