Final Score: Broncos get embarrassed at home by Raiders on ‘Mike Shanahan Day’

The Denver Broncos came into this game celebrating Mike Shanahan’s induction into the Broncos’ Ring of Fame. And they did it as they hosted the Las Vegas Raiders - a team Shanahan dominated for over a decade with a 21-7 record against them.

With it being a must-win game on both sides, the Broncos came out flat on defense and were exposed by Derek Carr who had seven completions of 25 yards or more as the Raiders easily blew out the Broncos in Denver, 34-24. That final score was much closer than it actually was. The Raiders were up 31-10 at one point until two late garbage time scores cut the final score down a bit.

Since Peyton Manning retired, the Broncos are 4-8 against the Raiders and it just doesn’t look like anything is going change under Vic Fangio’s leadership. As it stands, it looks like Denver is heading towards another losing season and wholesale change among the coaching staff in 2022.

First Quarter

The Broncos and Raiders traded blows in the first quarter. On their opening drive, the Raiders burned Ronald Darby and Justin Simmons deep on a 48-yard touchdown pass to Henry Ruggs.

Then the Broncos answered with a touchdown drive of their own - Pat Shurmur’s first opening drive touchdown since coming to Denver. Converting a third and 12 along the way, Teddy Bridgewater found Tim Patrick for a 23-yard touchdown to tie up the game.

Raiders 10, Broncos 7. Full first quarter recap.

Second Quarter

Nothing went right for the Broncos in the second quarter. They had several opportunities to come up with big plays and whiffed and when they got a good play there was some dumb penalty to negate it. Even worse, the Broncos offensive line was swiss cheese in the first half with Teddy Bridgewater getting sacked frequently.

Fortunately for Denver, their defense was able to keep the Raiders from scoring for most of the second quarter. Part of that was aided by a missed field goal, but with under two minutes to go Derek Carr and Darren Waller teamed up to break the backs of the Broncos defense that culminated in a wheel route to Kenyan Drake for a 31-yard touchdown to put the Raiders up big at halftime.

Raiders 17, Broncos 7. Full second quarter recap.

Third Quarter

Things went from bad to worse in the third quarter as the Broncos completely fall apart in all phases. Denver had plenty of chances, but the play calling in the red zone again reared its ugly head against the NFL’s worst red zone defense. Then the Broncos defense continued to get burned along the way. After a second dumb challenge by head coach Vic Fangio, I personally had to end the third quarter on this tweet.

Raiders 31, Broncos 10. Full third quarter recap.

Fourth Quarter

Denver’s offense finally saw some momentum swing their way converting a fourth down to Kendall Hinton with just over 11 minutes to go in the game. That conversion led to a touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton to cut the lead to two touchdowns.

Raiders 31, Broncos 17.

Whatever momentum the Broncos had hoped to gain was dashed on a third and six bomb by Carr for 51 yards. That would lead to a field goal and a final nail in the Broncos coffin to go up 34-17.

What a disappointing game.