Broncos win sloppy defensive battle vs. rival Raiders, improve to 3-5 - bcruise's Blog

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Broncos win sloppy defensive battle vs. rival Raiders, improve to 3-5

Posted on October 20, 2011 at 01:07 AM.

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The Tim Tebow era officially kicked off in Denver's week 9 battle with Oakland, and while it wasn't pretty it began with a win. Despite managing just 128 yards of total offense the Broncos escaped the Black Hole with a 17-7 victory.

Offensively Denver was led by Knowshon Moreno who posted another 100+ yard day on the ground and scored a TD with a 41 yard run. Tebow, despite being sacked 7 times went 5-10, throwing for just 76 yards. His main look was Eddie Royal as the Raiders had Lloyd locked down - Royal caught 2 balls for 50 yards.

Tebow's counterpart didn't fare much better. OAK QB Jason Campbell went 15-30 for 180 yards, but was sacked 6 times and threw three costly interceptions. Rahim Moore had one of those, as he increased his team-leading total to 4. Oakland also lost 2 fumbles, the 2nd one resulting in a scoop'n scoot 83 yard TD by LE Jason Hunter.

With the win and season sweep of the Raiders, Denver continues to be relevant in an AFC West division literally anyone has a shot at winning. With both KC and Oakland taking losses and San Diego pulling out a surprise win over the Packers, the entire division is sitting at 3-5. Next week may go a long way in helping sort out this mess - Denver squares off against Kansas City in KC, while Oakland hits the road to take on a revitalized San Diego team.

Highlights coming later (there weren't many). Regarding the boxscore, I'll do it by hand if the LM site won't sync - just want to give it a bit more time.