In a completely meaningless AFC West divisional game between two teams fighting for 2019 NFL Draft position, the Denver Broncos will be on the road against the Oakland Raiders on Christmas Eve Monday Night Football.
Despite a recent poll showing fans hoping for a Broncos loss to the Raiders, most of us on Mile High Report are thinking Broncos 23-19 win to crush the Raiders fans hopes and dreams of one final win in Oakland.
Here is how we predicting things to go individually.
Raiders 23, Broncos 13
In a fitting end to the Vance Joseph tenure as the head coach of the Broncos, they get rolled on the road against the franchises most hated rival. The one good thing will be that the Raiders will hurt their 2019 NFL Draft position by winning this game. In April, I’ll celebrate this. In December, I’ll loathe it. Screw the Raiders. - Tim Lynch
Raiders 27, Broncos 20
Rah Rah Rah, “we’re not the Raiders” rah rah rah “we can’t lose to the Raiders” rah rah rah yackity smackity. Whatever. Keep that rah rah rah garbage for your kid’s soccer game. This is professional football and sometimes the better team loses. Sometimes the home team wins. Sometimes teams have other teams’ numbers. Sometimes you’re pumped and amped up and you step in a puddle of mud outside the tunnel with the away crowd roaring and you just think “yep, we’re gonna lose.” And sometimes the less talented team simply has extra emotion and motivation to win. The Broncos are stepping into a meat grinder. The Raiders know this is likely their last game in that stadium ever! That’s powerful. That’s “Win one for the Gipper” “Ray Lewis’ swan song” “This one’s for John” and “This one’s for Pat” level motivation!
Sorry Broncos faithful, but sometimes those motivational and emotional moments override the otherwise more talented team. I know the Broncos are better and I know our fans are better. I know this hurts and stings and I’ll get ridiculed for it, but the good guy doesn’t always win! Sometimes the good guy loses, and this is one of those times. Throw all stats and quips out the window. Throw out the history and the snark. The Raiders are playing for the last time in Oakland and in front of their fans. That overrides it all. I hate to say it, but this game is a loss for the Broncos, which is a win for the team going into 2019. Like Obe-Wan Kinoi said “You can’t win Darth, strike me down and I’ll become more powerful then you can possibly imagine.” Strike us down Raiders, because we’ll be even more powerful because of the higher draft pick than this win in front of your trash heap stadium and crowd could possibly mean. - Pete Baron
Broncos 27, Raiders 16
Pete forgets something very important... the Raiders are a No Good, Very Bad team. They’re horrible this year, having traded 2/3 of their best players & drug the others through the muck (literally, any time they play at that sorry excuse for a home stadium they’re leaving) until they’re pretty much broken. I mean, come on. The Bengals team the Broncos dominated earlier this season just beat them 30-16. And 2 of their paltry 3 wins are against the other 2 of the 3 worst teams in the NFL. But, hey, every dog has his day, right? Well, the Raiders already had theirs when they beat a Steelers team already reeling from consecutive losses to the Broncos and Chargers. I think the Broncos take this chance to show off a bit of that bright 2019 Von Miller is talking about & give us a nice Christmas gift by ruining the Oakland faithful’s final memory of their team playing at home. - Taylor Kothe
Broncos 27, Raiders 17
I was born and raised to do two things: Be a fan of the Broncos and hate the Raiders. Even if I think Denver will lose in Oakland, I’ll never predict it. So what better way to send that joke of a franchise to Las Vegas than on a beautiful loss? - Ian St. Clair
Broncos 23, Raiders 17
The Oakland fans can pound sand and die in a hole. I look forward to their sweet, delicious tears as they weep over their lost “franchise” while 1/2 their stands are tarped because their fan base can’t fill the seats. Those pathetic fans deserve to lose more than this Bronco team deserves to win. Both teams at the end of the day are poorly executed 2018 NFL franchises. I’ll toast this win for the Broncos because Oakland sucks. If the Broncos lose, no big deal. Oakland still sucks and is losing their team and we get a better draft pick. It is a win-win for the Broncos this Christmas Eve. - Sadaraine
Broncos 27, Raiders 13
It’s Raider week. I don’t care what is happening around the franchise. Ownership issues. Coach issues. Players hurt. Doesn’t matter. There is one team each year that the Broncos have to be up for, no matter what. And the added pleasure of sending the Raiders out of Oakland on a big fat L has to be the biggest incentive. Denver will win this game based on all that alone. - Adam Malnati