LAS VEGAS — The one thing that Las Vegas Raiders fans had, other than some rollicking tailgates and fondness for face paint, was that as bad as they were, they owned the Denver Broncos. Heading into this season, the Raiders had beaten the Broncos eight straight times and 10 out of their last 11 meetings.
But that is no longer the case. The Broncos completed the season sweep of the Raiders on Sunday with a 29-19 win that featured a combined nine field goals by both teams. It may seem kind of cruel, timing-wise, with Gardner Minshew II nursing a broken collarbone and set to miss the rest of the season, but the disparity in the two teams’ quarterbacks was the biggest reason the Raiders lost Sunday.
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The quarterback position is also the biggest reason the 7-5 Broncos have soared past the Raiders this season and have a 4 1/2 game lead on the AFC West cellar dwellers. And, more importantly, why Denver and its fan base has hope for the future.
Minshew was off-target for most of Sunday’s loss, but his interception early in the third quarter swung the game just enough. He was trying to get rid of the ball before getting smashed, and airmailed a pass right to safety Brandon Jones, who was open enough that he had a running start on a 37-yard interception return.
PICKED! Brandon Jones takes it away for the @Broncos!
📺: #DENvsLV on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/4a1aWtHj8G— NFL (@NFL) November 24, 2024
Two plays later, Bo Nix threw a pretty 18-yard fade pass to the corner of the end zone that Courtland Sutton reached over Jack Jones to grab. The touchdown gave the Broncos the lead for good at 16-13, and the Raiders may have panicked a little bit.
They only ran the ball four more times in their last six possessions of the game.
Normally, that’s OK. The Raiders are last in the NFL in rushing by a lot. But …
They actually had success running the ball for maybe the second time this season. With Alexander Mattison and Zamir White out with injuries, 10th-year veteran Ameer Abdullah and practice-squad call-up Sincere McCormick found some lanes behind an offensive line group starting together for the second straight time. McCormick averaged 6.6 yards per carry, but only got the ball five times, while Abdullah had a team-high eight carries for 28 yards.
Why not run the ball more, Raiders coach Antonio Pierce was asked after the game. Does he think the Raiders should have more than 13 designed runs (not counting the three scrambles by Minshew and backup QB Desmond Ridder)?
“Of course,” Pierce said. “I don’t want to see the ball thrown 40 times. I’ve said that like a thousand times, but that’s been kind of our M.O.”
Pierced glanced down at the postgame stat sheet.
“Actually, it was 53 today, so …”
Pierce would never say this, but losing to the Broncos twice this season has to be especially gut-wrenching. (Minshew’s pick six to Pat Surtain II in Week 5 was the turning point of the season.)
All offseason, Pierce said he didn’t want a stop-gap quarterback and looked at the NFL Draft as an exciting opportunity as there were six quarterbacks with first-round grades.
But the top three were simply unattainable — as the Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders and New England Patriots refused to trade down and miss out on Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye, respectfully. The Raiders were not as high on the next three quarterbacks, while the Atlanta Falcons, Minnesota Vikings and Broncos jumped up and grabbed Michael Penix Jr., J.J. McCarthy and Nix.
Nix played a million games in college, and that’s a big reason for his success with the Broncos as a rookie. He has poise, top-notch athleticism and a better-than-you-think arm, and he has outplayed Minshew twice this season.
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The Raiders threw a lot of blitzes at Nix early on Sunday, and while the Broncos did move the ball fairly well, the Raiders held them to three field goals in the first half. But the third-quarter touchdown to Sutton and a 70-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, combined with no turnovers, was enough for Nix to deliver the win.
“Bo Nix is a pretty good football player, and it showed up again today,” Pierce said. “He made some good throws when he needed to, bought time with his legs backing up and avoiding pressure. We tried to be aggressive and disrupt him early, and I thought we did do that, but when they had to make plays, he made plays for them.
“He’s a winner … he loves to compete and doesn’t flinch. He never created negative plays for his team, never put them in bad situations.”
The same obviously cannot be said for Minshew, whose 14 turnovers (10 interceptions, four lost fumbles) tie him with Minnesota’s Sam Darnold for the NFL lead. The Raiders never got the quarterback they thought they were getting for $15 million guaranteed over two years. The 10 interceptions is a career-high already, and in the past Minshew was able to buy time with his feet and find receivers on the run. This year, it seems, he is just stumbling into a sack outside the pocket or scrambling forward for just a couple of yards. His 60 rushing yards on scrambles is 27th among NFL quarterbacks, according to TruMedia.
Ridder came in when Minshew left the game, and he also lost the football on a fumble. The expectation is that Aidan O’Connell and his healed thumb will be ready for Friday’s game in Kansas City.
And that’s the plan. For the next six games. Until the Raiders get a quarterback next offseason. The defense will shoulder on despite injuries and an allergy to getting turnovers itself (they have a league-low five takeaways).
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“We just have to keep showing up,” defensive end Maxx Crosby said. “I feel like we’re getting better every week.”
The seven-game losing streak is the team’s worst since they were 0-10 in 2014, and things can’t get any worse. They are at the bottom of the AFC West, looking up at even the Broncos.
(Photo of Antonio Pierce heading off the field after the loss: Ian Maule / Getty Images)
