‘I just overthrew him’: Pick-6 swings Raiders’ crushing loss to Broncos

DENVER — It was set up so beautifully for the Raiders.

Rookie tight end Brock Bowers was wide open at the foot of the end zone. The Raiders had a chance to take a commanding lead on the road against the Broncos and put themselves in a great position to win a second straight game.

That’s not how things played out.

Quarterback Gardner Minshew, on a first-and-goal from the 5-yard line, overthrew Bowers and the football went into the hands of Broncos cornerback Patrick Surtain II instead.

In the blink of an eye, the Raiders were no longer building on their 10-3 lead in the second quarter. They were instead tied 10-10 after Surtain raced 100 yards into the opposite end zone.

Denver never let up afterwards in a devastating 34-18 loss for the Raiders at Empower Field at Mile High on Sunday. The game turned on a single play. The Raiders were left to wonder what went wrong in a defeat that dropped them to 2-3 and last place in the AFC West.

“I just overthrew him,” Minshew said.

All Minshew had to do was zip the ball to Bowers, who finished with eight catches for 97 yards. That included a 57-yard touchdown catch on the Raiders’ first possession.

Minshew missed. That opened the door to a 34-0 Broncos run that buried the Raiders and snapped the team’s eight-game winning streak against Denver.

“It definitely swung the game,” Minshew said. “And obviously, I can’t do that to our team. Put us in a bad spot. That swing was definitely on me.”

Collapse

The Raiders folded after the pick-6. They didn’t score again until garbage time in the fourth quarter.

“It could have been a completely different game, but it is what it is,” said defensive end Maxx Crosby, who returned from an ankle injury to record two sacks. “We lost.”

Minshew was never the same after the interception.

He completed his first nine passes for 115 yards. After gifting the Broncos a touchdown, he connected on just three of his final eight attempts for 22 yards and threw another pick.

Backup Aidan O’Connell replaced Minshew in the third quarter and completed 10 of 20 passes for 94 yards and an interception.

Coach Antonio Pierce said he will watch the game film before deciding whether Minshew or O’Connell will start next week against the Steelers.

The Raiders committed a season-high 11 penalties, two of which came when they lined up with 12 players on defense. They turned the ball over three times and forced zero turnovers themselves. Every phase played a role in the defeat.

“Two things we always talk about (that) we cannot do on the road is turn the football over and penalties,” Pierce said. “And those two things we led by a large margin. And that’s not good enough.”

The Raiders defense gave up 109 rushing yards. They’ve given up more than 100 yards on the ground in four of their five games.

The team also allowed rookie quarterback Bo Nix to throw for 206 yards and post a season-high 117.2 passer rating. Nix had just 60 passing yards in the Broncos’ win against the Jets last week.

It didn’t help that the Raiders missed tackles and allowed Denver to turn several plays into chunk gains.

“At the end of the day, you gotta put a man to the ground,” Pierce said. “And a couple of those explosives came on missed tackles.”

Momentum changer

Football games almost never come down to one play, but the Raiders handled Surtain’s pick-6 about as poorly as possible.

“You’ve just gotta move on to the next play,” center Andre James said.

The fog the Raiders played in the rest of the game says they didn’t do that. They never got off the mat.

“Way too many penalties. We turned the ball over too much. We didn’t take the ball away on defense,” Crosby said. “You’re not going to win like that.”

The unforced errors could not have come at a worse time for the Raiders. They’re still dealing with star wide receiver Davante Adams’ trade request. Without their top weapon on offense, they need to play pristine football to survive.

They fell far short of that Sunday.

“We just gotta block out the noise and just focus on our individual jobs and the task at hand,” James said.

Their season depends on it.

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.