Nothing short of impressive: The Denver Broncos defeat the Oakland Raiders tonight on Monday Night Football 37-21 in front of 76,978 fans. This was the 106th time these two teams met and the 14th straight win by the Broncos of 7 or more points. As if completely unexpected, Peyton Manning put on another clinical on how to play QB for the NFL.
Manning went 32/37 for 374yds and 3 touchdowns; these touchdowns allowed Peyton to surpass Tom Brady in the most touchdowns through 3 games. Manning now has 1143yds on the season with 12 touchdowns and NO interceptions. 8 different players caught a Manning pass tonight, Demaryius Thomas the leader there with 10. “Well, all of them did a good job competing,” Manning said of his wideouts. “We knew we were in a challenge because Oakland has good cover corners. They mix up their coverages well. Guys did a good job getting open versus man and finding some holes in the zone. All of them did a good job running with the ball after the catch.” It looked like Manning pretty much did what he wanted to do on the field. “You see what he can do. I don’t even know too many people who can do that in Madden! It’s pretty cool to have a QB like that”, RB Ronnie Hillman said about his QB. “We get to play with one of the greatest quarterbacks and football players to ever play the game,” said TE Julius Thomas, who was one of Manning’s touchdown targets. “He’s great, there’s no other way to cut it up or slice it.” Raiders CB Mike Jenkins also commented on Manning’s ridiculous talent on the field: “Any inch of mistake that he sees, he’s going to put the ball there and find that hole.” Peyton certainly proved that, especially with his 61 yard strike to Eric Decker
Denver’s rushing attack did a fairly good job of keeping the clock rolling. Ronnie Hillman and Montee Ball both rushed for 60+ yards and there were only two fumbles, one of which belonged to Peyton. Consistent play melded well with Manning’s ability to rip apart Oakland’s defense. “I thought we had a good run game planned,” Manning said. “It kind of kept them off balanced a little bit. It wasn’t just about the passing game. I thought Ronnie Hillman had a couple good runs and that set up a couple things in the passing game.”
Nothing was perfect for the Broncos, who had to settle for 3 Matt Prater field goals and lost both fumbles. Ryan Clady’s replacement, Chris Clark, showed he was a rookie; especially when he got beat by Lamaar Houston. Houston sacked Manning harder than he has been hit in a long time, causing a fumble and recovery by Oakland. “I haven’t seen the film yet, but I thought Chris was sharp,” Manning said. “He was on top of all the checks. There were no mental issues with him. He’ll just get better each game throughout the season.”
“Certainly you see flashes of good things,” Manning said. “We’re executing and not making mistakes. We can go this distance, we can go 80 yards and certainly take advantage of the short field, but you can still see some mistakes. A turnover there in the end in the four-minute situation – we can’t have that. Penalties on a short-yardage situation and we had to settle for field goals. Those are things we have to iron out.”
On a side note; early in the 4th quarter, Ronnie Hillman tried to score a touchdown and came up short. While the refs were determining if he had scored, Hillman Knowshown Moreno and Montee Ball were on the sideline playing rock paper scissors to determine who was going to go in and run the ball in! Hillman obviously won! 
The Oakland Raiders may have walked away from this one with a loss, but not everything was a disappointment. QB Terrelle Pryor continued to show progression and threw no interceptions in the game. Pryor went 19/28 with 281yds with a 112.4 passer rating and 1 touchdown, which was a 73yd strike to WR Denarius Moore
Unfortunately, the league’s 2nd best rushing attack met the aggressive run stop defense of the Denver Broncos. Darren McFadden rushed for 9yds on 12 attempts, but did manage to score a touchdown late for the Raiders. McFadden even had a chance to be a QB, throwing a 16yd pass to FB Marcel Reece
Terrelle Pryor led the team with only 36yds rushing. He would leave the game late with what is now said to be concussion symptoms. Horrendous offensive penalties including false starts, back to back holding calls and offensive pass interference did not make the night go by any easier.
Even the refs had a hard time early on. A questionable pass interference call went against the Raiders, and soon after, they failed to reset the play clock forcing the Raiders to call a timeout.
Members of the Raiders’ D were quoted before the game saying their biggest goal was not letting up the big plays. Denver came into the game with a few stats on top of the league: PPG-45, YPG-462, Pass YPG-375 and Pass TDs at 9. Although these weren’t tarnished at all, Eric Decker’s 61yd pass play was probably the biggest on the night.
Tons of tweets came in last night during the game. Raiders Nation took part in the majority of them, of course, until the 2nd half when 3 tweets came in—must have been upset! Here are just a few of the tweets found during the game:
Peyton Manning is playing with the defensive game settings on "beginner."
— ESPN (@espn) September 24, 2013
TOUCHDOWN RAIDERS! 73-yard pass to WR @DenariusMoore from QB @TerrellePryor!
— OAKLAND RAIDERS (@RAIDERS) September 24, 2013
#Broncos respond to the Oakland TD with a 61-yd completion from Manning to Decker on the 1st play of their ensuing drive. #OAKvsDEN
— Broncos Gameday (@BroncosGameday) September 24, 2013
Is Peyton going to have another incompletion tonight? This is nuts.
— Judy Battista (@judybattista) September 24, 2013
Gruden is not wrong: diagnosing defense pre-snap is one thing, diagnosing blitz package pre-snap is entirely different animal. #Peyton
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) September 24, 2013
There are just too many weapons to go around for someone like Peyton Manning!
The Denver Broncos will host the Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday while the Oakland Raiders will host the 0-3 Washington Redskins. The Broncos/Raiders rivalry will continue with the last regular season game on December 29th at 4:15 pm in Oakland.
