Oakland Raiders: A Few Keys To Victory Over The Denver Broncos

Use That Turnstile

Remember back when the Broncos Tweeted out their unabashed joy over stripping away one of Oakland’s offensive linemen? Do you happen to recall the following Tweet?

Yeah, turns out that Tweet hasn’t aged particularly well.

It also turns out that GM Reggie McKenzie was wise in letting Menelik Watson walk away – even if it meant joining arch-nemesis Denver. Or perhaps, that was the plan all along. Maybe it was a clever little bit of subterfuge and sabotage.

Maybe McKenzie had planned whole time – slip a 300 pound Trojan Horse onto Denver’s offensive line?

All kidding and conspiracy theories aside, Watson’s debut season in Denver hasn’t exactly gone according to plan. It actually hasn’t gone very well. At all.

Three games into the season, Siemian’s offensive line has given up nine sacks – and he’s had to run for his life on quite a few more. Of those nine sacks, Watson has had a hand in giving up six of them.

If Oakland wants to disrupt Siemian and keep that trend of having him either flat on his back and/or running for his life, they’d be wise to use the turnstile that is Menelik Watson.

Though we haven’t seen it as consistently or constantly as we need to, the Raiders have some ferocious pass rushers in Khalil Mack, Bruce Irvin Eddie Vanderdoes, Justin Ellis, and Mario Edwards Jr.

Which means Denver is going to be in a bit of a pickle. They’ll obviously have to double-team (at least) Khalil Mack. And they’re also going to have to give Watson some help to keep the Raiders out of the backfield.

As the old saying goes, you can’t block everybody. Which means that Oakland’s defenders are going to need to take advantage of the opportunities they’re going to get. When they have Siemian in their sights, they’re absolutely going to have to finish him and put him down.

If the Raiders can use Watson to get some pressure on Siemian, they’re going to give themselves a puncher’s chance of taking control of this game.