Mile High Sports

A fight, a strip sack and a wacky INT; the first half had it all (except any Broncos points)

Casey Light

The first half of Sunday’s meeting between the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders had it all: A fight, plenty of punts, a strip sack, a pinball interception, a touchdown pass, plenty of penalties, a rushing touchdown and more. But like so many first halves over the past seven weeks, it did not have the Denver Broncos in the lead.

Oakland carried a 14-0 lead into the locker room at halftime, despite losing three starters in the half — two to ejection and one to injury. In the half, second-year quarterback Paxton Lynch passed for just 22 yards on 5-of-10 attempts. He was intercepted in the end zone and the Denver offense under his leadership accumulated just 54 total yards.

Denver forced a quick three-and-out on Oakland’s first possession, with Derek Carr throwing a pair of uncatchable passes on both second and third down in the drizzly conditions.

Paxton Lynch was errant in his first pass attempt of the season, missing Bennie Fowler badly after the wideout got behind coverage on third-and-five. Lynch overthrew Fowler by a good three feet and Denver traded punts.

Chaos broke out on the ensuing Oakland possession when a fight broke out two plays into the drive. Chris Harris was injured on first down on what he later revealed was a sucker punch to the stomach by Michael Crabtree away from the ball. On the very next play, Crabtree issued a prolonged block on Aqib Talib, with the skirmish extending well onto the sidelines and ending on the ground. In the exchange, Talib appeared to rip away a gold chain from Crabtree’s neck; it is the second time he’s done so in as many seasons. Punches between the two were eventually exchanged as the scuffle continued across the field and accumulated players. Both Crabtree and Talib were ejected, as was Raiders right guard Gabe Jackson for contact with an official.

Carr converted a 20-yard pass to Seth Roberts on third-and-15 once the dust had settled, but Denver responded with three straight stops and Oakland was again forced to punt. Denver also lost defensive end Derek Wolfe with a neck injury on the drive.

Andy Janovich picked up a cool 20 yards on a screen pass on the first play of the ensuing drive, but a holding call against right tackle Allen Barbre wiped out the gain. Denver would again punt, with the drive gaining a net minus-seven yards.

The field position game was slowly tilting in the direction of the Raiders, who moved into Denver territory on their next possession thanks to a questionable roughing the passer penalty on linebacker Shane Ray. The defense kept Oakland out of field goal range, however, with smothering play on the next three downs — Shelby Harris punctuated the series with a sack of Carr on third down to force yet another punt.

Leading a drive from his own eight-yard line, Lynch showed some signs of why head coach Vance Joseph made the switch to him for this game as he scrambled for an 11-yard gain to get the Denver offense out of the shadow of its own goal line. He also showed signs that he was making just his third NFL start, taking a delay of game penalty to set up a third-and-12. Barber was again flagged for holding as Lynch scrambled toward the line of gain, but Oakland declined the penalty and Dixon was on to punt for the third time in the quarter.

Shaquil Barrett made the first game-changing play of the half on the second play of the next drive, beating Donald Penn cleanly on the left edge to force and recover a strip sack of Carr at the Raiders’ 24-yard line.

Oakland balanced the ledger sheet almost immediately, however.

Lynch hit Devontae Booker on a wheel route for a 19 yards on what was initially ruled a touchdown. Review said Booker’s knee was down at the one, and Denver had first-and-goal. Newly named offensive coordinator went right back to Booker, this time on the ground with a jumbo package, but the play went nowhere. Lynch rolled to his left on play-action on the very next play and fired a ball into traffic targeting Virgil Green. It was tipped and batted and ultimately landed in the hands of a sprawled out NaVorro Bowman who was on the ground in the end zone after a collision.

The interception was Oakland’s first on the season, snapping an NFL record 11-game streak without one.

Carr wouldn’t waste that momentum, as he quickly turned it into an 80-yard scoring drive ending with a nine-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper, who was all alone in the end zone after beating rookie Brendan Langley in coverage. DeAndre Washington accounted for 20 yards on the ground in the 5:21 drive. Marshawn Lynch added 20 as well on a screen pass. Broncos linebacker Zaire Anderson gave the Raiders another 15 with a facemask penalty.

Paxton Lynch and the Denver offense went three-and-out with a chance to answer, losing five yards on the drive (10 on a third-down sack of Lynch by Denico Autry).

The Oakland offense went to work again with a balanced attack starting at their own 48. A pass-run-run-run combination picked up 24 yards before the Raiders chewed up some big yardage thanks to another penalty.

Darian Stewart was flagged for a hit on a defenseless receiver that gave the Raiders a first down at the Denver 11-yard line, but it cost Oakland its second major target for Carr, Cooper. The third-year wideout elevated for a high pass and collided with Stewart after ducking when he realized the pass was uncatchable. Cooper appeared to lay unconscious on the field before leaving under his own power.

A pass interference call on Langley in the end zone gave Oakland a first-and-goal from the one. Carr appeared to connect with Jared Cook for a touchdown on the next play, but the call was overturned upon review. Denver stopped Marshawn Lynch short on second down, but the veteran hit the same gap on the next play to extend Oakland’s lead to 14-0 after the PAT.

Paxton Lynch took over at his own 25 desperately needing to put up points, but again looked like the inexperienced quarterback he is. He one-hopped a wide open Emmanuel Sanders in first-down territory, then threw a 50/50 ball a bit too deep down the far sideline to Demaryius Thomas. Lynch was sacked for the second time on the day on third down, giving Carr the ball at the Oakland 40 with 2:28 remaining.

The Denver defense held its ground, though, forcing Marquette King‘s fifth punt of the game. It proved to be his best, with Cordarrelle Patterson fielding the punt at the Denver one-yard line. Janovich got Denver out of their own end zone on first down. Lynch took a knee and a 14-point deficit to the locker room.

Denver ended the half with 54 yards of total offense and two first downs, while committing 65 yards worth of penalties.

As always, the team at MHS was all over the action as the half unfolded. Here’s what they had to say, including takes from some of our favorite follows on Twitter…

https://twitter.com/TJCarpenterShow/status/934906017539903488

https://twitter.com/LoganH1421/status/934908221076127744

https://twitter.com/TJCarpenterShow/status/934910011565920257

https://twitter.com/TJCarpenterShow/status/934917264385761280

https://twitter.com/ToddRomeroTV/status/934920167179423744

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