The most fitting way to describe the beginning to the 2023 season for the Raiders is Unusual…
In fact, the entire off-season was unusual. The Raiders parted ways with former stars Derek Carr and Darren Waller. They added Jimmy Garoppolo and Tyree Wilson despite existing foot injuries. They dealt with drama around Davante Adams’ happiness and Josh Jacobs’ holdout. Then, right before the season began, Chandler Jones had a personal meltdown on Social Media and is no longer expected to play for this team.
With Carr no longer the face of the Raiders, the Silver and Black entered the season with Maxx Crosby as the leader. There are other leaders on the team in Adams, Jacobs and Garoppolo…however, this team is Crosby’s team now.
The game itself was extremely unusual. The Raiders only had six true possessions. They drove the ball into the red zone on four of those drives. The only intent for the final drive of the game was to run out the clock…which they accomplished. Therefore, they only had one truly unsuccessful drive. However, only two TD’s in four trips to the red zone is not good enough. They settled for a FG on one drive and Garoppolo threw an interception on another.
After the interception, this game felt like it was taking a familiar turn. Last season the Raiders allowed multiple games to slip away from them that they should have won. This was beginning to feel that way as well. Crosby and the defense stepped up in a big way and got the stops they needed in the second half. They got the ball back to the offense and Garoppolo marched them down for the go ahead TD. Following that, the defense got another big stop getting the ball back to the offense with five minutes to play. The Raiders offense got the needed first downs and ran out the clock for the win.
Anytime you win on the road in the NFL it is an accomplishment. Doing so against a division rival is an even bigger deal. This was a good win for a Raiders team that is looking to put last season’s failures behind them and get back to the playoffs. The fact that it was the seventh consecutive win over Denver was just icing on the cake.