Oakland Raiders defeat Denver Broncos in Week 1: Let’s talk about it
By Sean Basile
The Oakland Raiders defeated the Denver Broncos 24-16 in a marvelous Week 1 performance by the home team after an emotional offseason lead up.
Great opening win last night for the Oakland Raiders. Jon Gruden claimed his 100th-career victory and the team extended its home win streak over the Denver Broncos to four games.
It was an emotional offseason that led up to this opening game and the Raiders seized the moment by all accounts. From the offense to the defense, this was as complete of a performance as you could ask for if you’re Jon Gruden.
Derek Carr was solid throwing for 259 yards and a touchdown and went 22-for-26 in passing attempts against a tough Broncos secondary.
Tyrell Williams finished with 105 yards on six receptions and a touchdown. With the matchup of Chris Harris Jr. on him, a guy who could’ve caused him a lot of problems, but Williams handled himself well.
Darren Waller also got in on the action with seven catches for 70 yards on eight targets.
The defense held Joe Flacco and the Broncos’ offense to six points through three quarters and just 268 passing yards. They also held down the run game of Phillip Lindsay and Royce Freeman to a total of 99 yards between the two of them on 21 attempts and zero touchdowns.
But the stars of this game have to be Josh Jacobs in the run game and the Raiders’ offensive line.
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Starting with Jacobs, he finished with 85 yards on the ground with two touchdowns on 23 rushing attempts. Denver always seems to be a weaker run defensive team, but the rookie showed out in his NFL debut and proved the Raiders have a legit threat at running back this year to account for.
In terms of the offensive line, these guys did a great job against one of the premier pass-rushing duos in the game. Between Von Miller and Bradley Chubb, the two had just six combined tackles, zero tackles-for-loss, and zero sacks.
Derek Carr didn’t go down once this game.
That’s a fantastic job by the Raiders’ offensive line and an even greater job by the tackles who I had questions about. Can they keep up that energy and put out performances like that all year? That remains to be seen.
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But for the time being, there should be a ton of confidence in that Raiders locker room with the power of the offensive line and run game to build off of. They completely shut down Miller and Chubb in the pass-rush game and Jacobs ran all over the field in dominant form.
The one downside to this game was the loss of Gareon Conley with a neck injury that could put him out for the entire season, at the very least a month.
Conley is the Raiders’ best corner, so his absence will be a test of will for an Oakland Raiders secondary that has historically (at least for the past few years) been terrible.
To me, that says we’re going to be seeing a lot more Trayvon Mullen and a lot more nickel packages with the trio of Karl Joseph, Lamarcus Joyner, and Johnathan Abram on the field at the same time. It’s going to be interesting to see how this team copes with the loss.
Other than that, we have Patrick Mahomes coming into Oakland next week for a Chiefs/Raiders showdown. Mahomes is banged up and missing Tyreek Hill, so it may not be all set-in-stone for a Raiders’ loss there.
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They’ll have to keep up offensively and throw the ball down the field, but if Carr and the offense can keep up, there might be a chance they steal a shootout.
More to come on that game.