Mile High Sports

Broncos take advantage of Raiders backups early

Casey Light

The Oakland Raiders failed to cross midfield in the first half of the season finale in Denver on Sunday as the Broncos defense feasted on the inexperience of backup quarterbacks Matt McGloin and Connor Cook. The Broncos offense, meanwhile, started to show signs of life under Trevor Siemian and Devontae Booker.

Denver, which had scored only 23 total points over their previous three games, jumped out to a 17-0 halftime lead of a game that could end Oakland’s hopes of winning their first AFC West title since 2001.

Siemian got his tight ends going early, hitting Jeff Heuerman for a 19-yard gain on the opening play of the game and finding Virgil Green soon after. The QB kept slinging it through the rest of the drive with big completions to Cody Latimer for nine yards and Demaryius Thomas for 14 yards. Devontae Booker capped a 84-yard drive with an 11-yard touchdown run, his fourth of the season. Denver was aided by a pair of Raiders penalties for 20 yards on the drive and the Broncos had their first lead since Week 13 in Jacksonville.

McGloin, playing in relief of Derek Carr, looked plenty confident on the first Oakland drive behind that strong offensive line. He wasn’t shy about attacking Aqib Talib on a third-and-seven, but Talib was good on the coverage of Michael Crabtree and Oakland was forced to punt the ball away.

After a promising opening drive Siemian and the Broncos offense got back to their old ways, going three-and-out on their ensuing possession. The Denver defense held serve, forcing a punt themselves after a six-play, 13-yard Oakland possession.

Denver carried a 7-0 lead as the first quarter came to an end and on the second play of the second quarter Justin Forsett busted through a huge hole in the Oakland line for a 64-yard gain. Demaryius Thomas then caught a pass that moved him into third place on Denver’s all-time receptions list to help set up a 22-yard Brandon McManus field goal to extend the lead to 10-0.

The Raiders’ offensive struggles continued, going three-and-out on their next possession and giving Denver the ball at their own 16 after an 11-yard punt return by Kalif Raymond. The Denver offense stalled out, though, and the drive ended as so many did this year – with the failure to pick up third-and-short. Forsett tried to run through the a-gap on third-and-one and was tackled short of the line of scrimmage, forcing Riley Dixon’s second punt of the day.

McGloin’s inexperience showed on the very next play when he badly missed a wide open Amari Cooper for what should have been a wide-open path to the end zone. Jared Crick took a roughing the passer penalty, though, on third-and-10 to extend Oakland’s drive and get them near midfield. They would not cross the 50, though as Oakland took a facemask penalty to bring up a third-and-29 the Raiders would not convert.

The hit by Crick forced McGloin out of the game, forcing rookie Connor Cook into the game. Cook was a fourth-round draft pick in 2016 out of Michigan State.

Forsett nearly gave the ball back to Oakland after a nifty 23-yard throw and catch between Seimian and Jordan Taylor, but Matt Paradis recovered the ball and kept Denver within field-goal range. Holding penalty on a botched snap took them out of range, but Gary Kubiak drew up the perfect play call on the very next snap. Booker got great downfield blocking on a swing pass and went 43 yards on a third-and-18 for his second score of the day.

Cook connected short of the sticks on two of his first three passes and Oakland was punting back to Denver inside the 2:00 warning, having used just :30 of clock time.

Denver took a shot on their next drive, but couldn’t get in range for a field goal, and took a 17-0 lead into the locker room at the half. Oakland tacked on a personal foul penalty after time expired to add salt to a wounded first half.

Here’s what the team at MHS and some of our favorite follows in the Denver media had to say about how the first half unfolded…

https://twitter.com/RonnieKRadio/status/815671277759369217

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