A fast start was followed by a sluggish second quarter and beyond for the Las Vegas Raiders as it fell under .500 for the third time in the first five weeks of the season.
Las Vegas was beaten by Denver, 34-18, Sunday, Oct. 6 in Colorado in the team’s first road game in 21 days. This divisional road test came after back-to-back home games from Allegiant Stadium where the team split those meetings.
Prior to this outcome, the Raiders had defeated the Broncos in eight straight contests. The last win for the Denver franchise in this rivalry came in December of 2019.
“We came back in here at halftime — it’s a 10-13 ball game, we’ve got to keep playing,” head coach Antonio Pierce said. “And we just didn’t make enough plays and obviously penalties and turnovers killed us.”
Entering Sunday, the Raiders, Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers were all tied for second place in the AFC West at 2-2. The division is led by the back-to-back defending champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, at 4-0.
After dropping their season opener to LA on the road and now most recently against Denver, Las Vegas is off to an 0-2 start in the division.
“I don’t think there are any positives when you lose,” Pierce said.
Thirty-four straight points from the Broncos ultimately cemented the outcome for the Raiders. Just before halftime, the home team took its first lead of the game off the leg of kicker Will Lutz.
Just before that field goal was made, Lutz missed a 59-yard try wide left. He’d be given another crack at it after a penalty was called on the defense. In fact, Las Vegas was flagged 11 times for a total of 79 yards.
In the 13 games that Pierce has led either as interim head coach or full-time head coach prior to this one, the Raiders were penalized just under four times a game which led the league.
“Between penalties and turnovers, we hurt ourselves today,” Pierce said.”Lot of pre-snap, post-snap, special teams. We got hit all across the board obviously we’ll look at it and we’ve got to correct it.”
Denver would score its first offensive touchdown in the third quarter off a touchdown pass from rookie quarterback Bo Nix. He’d throw for 206 yards on 19-of-27 with three total touchdowns.
Nix helped lead his team to a perfect 3-of-3 showing inside the red zone after going 4-for-12 through the first four weeks of the season. He is now the first Bronco quarterback to win three straight starts.
As slow as it ended for Las Vegas, it may be hard to fathom the team raced out to a 10-0 lead. On the first drive of the game, quarterback Gardner Minshew found rookie tight end Brock Bowers, who would not only make the leaping catch but sprint into the end zone for a 57-yard score.
That touchdown went down as the first in the Georgia product’s NFL career as he’d haul in eight passes for 97 yards. Both of those marks were team-highs.
The Raiders scoring on that opening drive was the first time the Broncos’ defense had given up an opening drive touchdown in 18 games.
Not long after, that seven-point lead would be stretched to 10 after kicker Daniel Carlson would boot his eighth made field goal of the season.
To that point, Minshew was 7-for-7 with 96 passing yards. Eventually, he’d complete his first nine pass attempts before things turned array.
Looking for a chance to go up 17-0, Minshew was intercepted at the goal line by defensive back Pat Surtain II. He would take the interception back 100 yards for the longest pick-six in team history.
”We’ve got to fight the momentum,” Pierce said. “We knew there’d be a play or two in the game that wouldn’t go our way. Obviously, that happened.”
Minshew would throw another interception in the third quarter as part of his 12-for-17 passing night with 137 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. He now has five interceptions on the season after recording the second-fewest picks in his first 41 career starts trailing only Patrick Mahomes.
Backup Aidan O’Connell would take over the quarterbacking duties following Minshew’s second interception. On the first play of his second drive, the second-year player would be intercepted for the third and final turnover of the game before finishing the game 10-for-20 with 94 yards and an interception in his limited action.
”I don’t know,” Pierce said about a quarterback change moving forward. “I don’t have the answer to that yet.”
O’Connell would be at the helm of a scoring drive that concluded with a three-yard touchdown run by running back Ameer Abdullah. For a second straight game, the Raiders pounded the pavement resulting in 115 rushing yards.
Over the last two weeks, the team has racked up 267 yards on the ground after being held to 153 through the first three weeks of the season.
“Early in the game, I thought we did a really good job running the ball,” Pierce said. “We were moving the ball in the first quarter, it looked really good. Then as the game went on, it wasn’t going in our direction.”
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