Raiders lock up Broncos, pull away for convincing victory
With the Raiders’ blowout win over the Denver Broncos safely tucked away late in the fourth quarter on Sunday, all that was left was one last drive to drain as much clock as possible.
In spite of everyone on both sidelines knowing exactly what was coming every time the Raiders lined up, Derek Carr kept handing the ball to Devontae Booker and the Raiders and Booker kept pushing the Broncos backward for big chunks of yardage.
It was the epitome of a team doing and taking whatever it wanted from an overmatched opponent, culminating with Booker rumbling 23 yards for a touchdown to cap off a 37-12 win and set up next Sunday’s showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs (8-1) at Allegiant Stadium.
With one major qualifier.
Sunday was neither the sharpest the Raiders (6-3) have played this year nor the best. In fact, there were a handful of plays they left on the field, including a dropped touchdown pass by Nelson Agholor, two would-be big yardage completions that slipped through the hands of Darren Waller and Henry Ruggs, and a punt return for a touchdown by Hunter Renfrow that got called back by a blindside block penalty.
“We definitely left 21 (points) out there,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said.
Said running back Josh Jacobs: “The first half we were terrible. We were doing a lot of things to beat ourselves.”
Yet even on a day in which there were as many opportunities squandered as seized, the Raiders were still plenty good enough to win going away.
Even while playing without three starting offensive linemen and weakside linebacker Cory Littleton, and with fullback Alec Ingold gutting it out with two fractured ribs, they pretty much pushed the Broncos from one end of Allegiant Stadium to the other.
The Raiders rushed for 203 yards, forced five defensive turnovers, including four interceptions, and sacked Denver quarterback Drew Lock two times and laid seven hits on him.
Granted, Locke leaves a lot to be desired and the Broncos (3-6) are headed in the wrong direction. A better quarterback and a more formidable opponent make the Raiders pay for those early mistakes.
The flip side is that the Raiders are starting to get a pretty good inkling of the kind of team they can become.
“I guess it’s just a testament to how good this team can be eventually, when we start putting it all together,” said Jacobs, who eclipsed the 100-yard mark for the second time in three games with 112 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries.
In the meantime, here they are on a three-game winning streak and firmly planted in the AFC playoff race, if not the division chase, after steamrolling the Broncos.
“I think we put the league on notice,” Jacobs said. “We put up (37) points playing bad, for the most part.”
Up next are the Chiefs, whose only loss over their first nine games was to the Raiders last month at Arrowhead Stadium. A Raiders repeat win over the Super Bowl champs escalates things from interesting to downright fascinating.
For now, though, the Raiders are still in search of a complete performance after an uneven first half left just enough of a bad taste in their mouths to render Sunday’s victory less than completely satisfying.
“There’s too many big plays left out there, and we gotta get that corrected,” Carr said.
Added Raiders head coach Jon Gruden: “We left some plays out there that our guys are capable of making.”
In fact, without the end zone interception by Jeff Heath to end the first half, which meant the Raiders went to the locker room leading 10-6 rather than trailing 13-10, and another dominating third quarter in which they outscored the Broncos 10-0 to take control of the game, things could have turned out far different on Sunday.
Heath’s interception set the tone for an efficient second half in which Carr and the offensive ran off 20 unanswered points on a 52-yard field goal by Daniel Carlson, a 5-yard touchdown run by Jacobs, a 22-yard field goal by Carlson and a 7-yard touchdown run by Booker to make it 30-6.
In and around that, the Raiders’ defense forced two punts and got an interception from Carl Nassib and a strip and fumble recovery from Nevin Lawson.
That the Raiders didn’t just survive the shaky first half but actually dominate the second half was a decidedly satisfying takeaway.
“I’m excited with the way we answered. I’m excited with the way we won the game,” said Carr, who completed 16 of 25 passes for 154 yards. ”We’re proving we can win any type of way, which is great and it’s awesome.”
Even on a day that was far from one of the Raiders’ best.
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on Twitter.
