Raiders vs. Broncos: Drawing Up a Game Plan for Oakland

The Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos play each other Sunday, and both teams are 1-2 after three games. The loser of the game will be a disappointing 1-3, while the winner will be in the thick of the AFC West sitting at 2-2. Both teams defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers at home and dropped its other two games, making this Week 4 matchup a must-win game for both teams.

For the Raiders to win, the offense needs to sustain drives and score early and often. The defense needs to give Peyton Manning different looks to create turnovers and get stops on third down to be successful.

The Raiders have injury issues at cornerback, and the Broncos will be without middle linebacker Joe Mays, who is suspended for one game for a helmet-to-helmet hit on quarterback Matt Schaub in Week 3. As such, the Raiders will struggle to stop the passing game and the Broncos will struggle stopping Darren McFadden on the ground.

A productive McFadden sets up the passing game, and the attention opposing defenses pay to him should give his teammates additional opportunities. The Raiders enter another week without their starting cornerbacks and will start Michael Huff and Pat Lee outside. The only way the Raiders will be able to stop the passing game is by getting pressure on Manning and simultaneously hoping his arm is having a bad day.

 

On Offense



Oakland’s offense needs to accomplish two goals against the Broncos: stay on the field for as long as possible and score touchdowns. That’s best accomplished with the running game, and there may be no better time to test Denver’s run defense than when they are missing their middle linebacker. Sounds complicated, right?

The running game is sometimes only as good as the blocking. In Week 3, Oakland made an adjustment and used the more traditional man blocking to get McFadden going. The Raiders still struggled with zone runs and might consid...