Khalil Mack Shines, Brock Osweiler Regresses as Denver Broncos Fall to Oakland Raiders at Home
Khalil Mack was a one-man show against the Denver Broncos Sunday, leading the Oakland Raiders to a 15-12 upset in Mile High Stadium.
“He was unbelievable,” said Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio of the first-round linebacker out of Buffalo. “He’s just getting better and better.”
Mack finished the game with five second-half sacks including a safety. The Broncos offensive line and quarterback Brock Osweiler had absolutely no answer for the runner-up Defensive Rookie of the Year.
While Osweiler may have finished with 308 yards, don’t fall into the trap of praising him. Finishing 35-of-51 means nothing if your 16 incompletions come on overthrown touchdowns and fourth down attempts. With the Broncos defense yet again doing all the heavy lifting, Osweiler failed to get anything going on the offensive side of the ball.
“We had a chance to really do some damage in the first half and didn’t do it,” said head coach Gary Kubiak after the game. “And we obviously helped them in the second half with turnovers, I think four or five drops. We lost the line of scrimmage offensively. We played great defense.”
The offensive line didn’t help the situation at all. With C.J. Anderson out, the line failed to generate any running room for Ronnie Hillman. Osweiler didn’t help either. Say what you want about him, in four games, the Broncos have had a solid offensive showing once (against the New England Patriots, ironically).
I’m not sold. It takes a lot more than a handful of defensive victories for a quarterback to earn my approval, especially with QBs being overrated left and right in the NFL today. As far as the media seems to be concerned, it’s all Osweiler when they win and everyone else’s fault when they lose.
The bottom line is, don’t let anyone take away from what Mack and the Raiders did here. Heavily outmatched, they managed to come in and win despite the Broncos’ shutdown defense.
At 6-7, the Raiders are anything but out of the AFC Wild Card hunt. They may not be Super Bowl contenders, but this is a team that has upset potential.