Final

The 2 year losing streak is over. The last time the Broncos beat the Raiders was Week 3 of the 2009 season. In addition, the Broncos will be one game out of the AFC West lead. It was an unbelievable day for the Denver Broncos.

As the game started to unfold in the first quarter, I had a horrible gut feeling that the Broncos would lose this game from their own mistakes. With Ryan Clady's early holding calls and the inability to pick up a blitz, I figured this would be a long day for the Denver Broncos. It was a struggle in the first half, as the Broncos fell to a 7-17 deficit, but they turned it around with a huge win. 

There were some ugly penalties from the Raiders, most notably the Aaron Curry late hit on Tim Tebow out of bounds on 3rd and 20 in the 4th quarter and roughing the kicker penalty at the end of the first half. The Broncos, however, had some awful penalties. To me, the most notable was Ryan Clady. Ryan Clady had two very costly holding penalties in the first half, one of which erased a 3rd and 1, turning it into a 3rd and 11, the second erased a first down run, turning it into a third and 12. After the second Clady penalty, the Broncos were forced to punt and a low snap made Britton Colquitt bobble the ball and throw it away, out of desperation. The Raiders scored from this momentum and the Broncos struggled to get things going for the rest of the half.

In the second half, however, the Broncos took a turn for the better. Tebow threw a touchdown pass over the middle to a wide open Eddie Royal, bringing the score to 14-17. After a Raiders drive in which they picked on Andre Goodman, they scored to the left side thanks to a beautiful catch by Jacoby Ford.

After a 43 yard Matt Prater field goal, the Raiders got the ball back. Then Carson Palmer threw a pass high over the middle that was deflected and intercepted by Chris Harris. The next play, Willis McGahee, broken hand and all, ran 60 yards for a Broncos touchdown.

After the Broncos and Raiders swapped punts, Eddie Royal returned a punt 85 yards (fifth longest in Broncos history) and celebrated by Tebowing in the back of the endzone. A Raider fan threw a beer can at him, but hey, what do you expect?

After a Raiders drive stalled, the Broncos got the ball at their own 23 yard line. From there, Tim Tebow ran a QB draw out of the spread option and rumbled for 28 yards. The next play, he handed off to Willis McGahee for 17 yards out of the spread option. A few plays later, McGahee ran for touchdown number 2, untouched on a 24 yard scamper out of the spread. The Raiders couldn't tell up from down as the Broncos ran the option out of the spread. The Raiders couldn't recover from the 2 score deficit, as Champ Bailey notched his 2nd interception of the game with under a minute to play. 

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