Raiders’ quick slants: Broncos Week 12 edition

Las Vegas plays well in first half, but falters in second in 29-19 loss to Denver

Once again, an interception scuttled the Las Vegas Raiders against the Denver Broncos.

Just like the two team’s Week 5 matchup, the Silver & Black came out with purpose in the Week 12 divisional contest leaving the horsemen befuddled.

By sending an array of blitzes at Denver rookie quarterback Bo Nix and playing solid coverage on the backend, Patrick Graham’s Raiders defenses kept the Broncos’ offense out of sync. Scott Turner, meanwhile, had the Las Vegas’ offense moving the ball on a normally stout Vance Joseph-led Denver defense.

In fact, it was the Raiders’ lethargic offense that scored the lone first-half touchdown. After rookie tailback Dylan Laube set the offense up with great field position after a 59-yard kick return, quarterback Gardner Minshew dropped a dime to veteran running back Ameer Abdullah for six-yard touchdown pass.

That all resulted in a 13-9 lead going into halftime in a contest that appeared to be going the home team’s way.

Yet, just like the first meeting between the Raiders and Broncos, Minshew’s misfire on Las Vegas’ first drive in the third quarter was intercepted by Denver and that flipped the script.

After the pick and a run for no gain, Nix found wide receiver Courtland Sutton for an 18-yard strike for a touchdown. A field goal on an ensuing drive gave Denver a 19-13 lead and the team didn’t look back.

The closest Las Vegas would get was trimming the deficit to 19-16 after a Daniel Carlson field goal. But with the Raiders defense’s effectiveness dwindling as the game went on, the Broncos went on a lengthy seven-play, 70-yard drive that saw Nix hook up with Sutton for a two-yard touchdown laser.

Las Vegas did attempt to answer with a lengthy drive of its own, by the team could only get to Denver’s four-yard line and failed to get any further on three-straight ties settling for another field goal to cut the Broncos’ lead to 26-19 with 3:38 left to play.

The Raiders did force a punt to get the ball back with down eight with 3:12 left to play, however, the Broncos sacked Minshew on the first play and the fall reportedly caused the quarterback to snap his collarbone, which will end the veteran’s season.

And that’s all she wrote for the Raiders in Week 12.

Such a flip in effectiveness and resolve from both AFC West teams was intriguing to see. It looked like Las Vegas would spoil Denver’s playoff push early on, but a determined effort defensively and offensively allowed the Broncos to stiff arm the Raiders enroute to a much-needed win. Las Vegas meanwhile appeared to be a team that used all of its will power before it was depleted with the interception, Minshew’s energy, and Desmond Ridder’s own fumble coming in to replace the signal caller.

On the plus side (in terms of draft position), at 2-9 overall and with the seventh-straight loss on the books — the longest losing skid in the NFL — the Raiders sport the same record as the Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Giants. And with Las Vegas on a short week before a Black Friday matchup with the AFC West dominating Kansas City Chiefs (10-1), the Silver & Black have potential to drop to 10 losses on the season — much to the chagrin of defensive end Maxx Crosby above.

Let’s hit the quick slants as fast as the Raiders offense faded after Minshew’s interception:

—Sensational rookie tight end Brock Bowers had a relatively quiet day with only four catches for 38 yards But the No. 13 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft upped his season total to 74 catches and he passed Amari Cooper (72 in 2015) for the most receptions in a single season by a rookie in team history.

—Jakobi Meyers paced all pass catchers with 15 targets and turned the looks into 10 catches for 121 yards. Fellow Raiders wide receiver Tre Tucker pitched in seven receptions for 82 yards.

—While Sutton came alive in the second half and led all receiving options with two touchdown catches and finished with eight grabs for 97 yards, fellow Broncos receiver Devaughn Vele snared six passes for 80 yards as the pair of tall wideouts (Sutton at 6-foot-4 and Vele at 6-foot-5) worked the Raiders secondary.

—Raiders rookie cornerback Decamerion Richardson had a rough afternoon in coverage against the Broncos wide receivers, however, there’s plenty opportunities to learn from his mistakes as there’s teach tape aplenty.

—Denver’s defense came into the game with the league-lead in sacks (39) and racked up five quarterback takedowns in the win. Nik Bonitto, Jonah Elliss, and Malcolm Roach each got one sack while D.J. Jones, Cody Barton, Jonathon Cooper, and Eyioma Uwazurike each got half a sack.

—Flip to the Raiders and defensive end Tyree Wilson collected the team’s lone sack. The second-year player finished with four total tackles — two stops for loss — and is showing improvement.

—Crosby didn’t register a sack but did notch three tackles for loss. That puts the edge rusher at 100 career stops for loss and he’s now one of four player sin NFL history to reach 100 tackles for loss in his first season NFL season joining J.J. Watt (133), Aaron Donald (117), and DeMarcus Ware (101).

Quotes of Note:

“This is a business. This is the league. People go down. We can’t be worried about, ‘Oh, we’ve got to wait until someone else gets the role filled to do our job. I expect everyone to do the hell out of their job this week to give ourselves a chance against Kansas City.” —Las Vegas Raiders running back Ameer Abdullah

“Yeah, we’re going to need somebody. We’re running out of quarterbacks too, now. We’ll see what happens tomorrow, but obviously it looks like he’s getting better. He threw a little bit in practice this week. Obviously we’ve got a short week, play on Friday, travel on Thursday, so we have to make that decision very quickly.” —Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce on quarterback Aidan O’Connell being eligible to come off injured reserve in Week 13.