RAIDERS AT BRONCOS
Time: 1:25 p.m. TV/Radio: 5#z /98.5, 102.9 Inside: AFC West rivalry game carries plenty of weight.
DENVER — This is only early fall, only the fourth game of the season, only one step on the long journey to determining an AFC West champion and potential wildcard teams.
So why does Sunday’s Raiders-Broncos game carry an unmistakable whiff of urgency?
They’re storied rivals, for one, with a long history of enmity on the football field. They’re widely projected as playoff contenders, already jostling for position with Kansas City in a crowded and compelling division race.
They’re also both reeling a bit, suddenly awash in fresh questions after 2-0 starts. The Broncos lost at Buffalo last Sunday and the Raiders were embarrassed at Washington. Those defeats exposed previously masked shortcomings.
Sunday cannot arrive soon enough, in other words.
“I’m excited and desperate to get to the next game, to get this bad taste out of our mouth,” Raiders offensive tackle Donald Penn said. “… I know a lot of guys on that Denver team, and their mentality. It’s going to be tough in their house. It’s divisional play, and that always brings a little extra excitement to it.”
Divisional play also brings familiarity, and that’s especially true in this edition of Raiders-Broncos. Oakland head coach Jack Del Rio spent three years as Denver’s defensive coordinator. Broncos quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave previously worked as Raiders offensive coordinator. Broncos offensive tackle Menelik Watson played four seasons in Oakland.
Or consider recent games in this long series. The Raiders had a chance to win the division title Jan. 1 in Denver, in the final game of the 2016 regular season. They lost 24-6 without quarterback Derek Carr because of a broken right leg.
Also remember Carr’s undistinguished history in the Mile High City. He has completed only 46 percent of his passes in two starts at Sports Authority Field. He threw for 158 yards in one game, just 135 in the other.
The Broncos, as usual, boast a skilled and smothering defense. If they harass Carr into early mistakes, all those orange-clad spectators will crank up the volume, complicating Oakland’s challenge.
“The crowd is going to be as loud as we let them,” Del Rio said. “It’s up to us to play good football. Play well enough to not have them be frenzied.
“If they get rolling, and they’re having a party, it’s going to be really loud. That’s typically how it goes in road games.”
Denver features two brash Pro Bowl cornerbacks in Aqib Talib and Chris Harris Jr. They will tangle with Raiders receivers Michael Crabtree (doubtful with a chest contusion) and Amari Cooper (six dropped passes in three games), who are dealing with their own issues entering Sunday’s game.
The Broncos, with the fourth-ranked defense in the NFL, are stout against the run (hello, Marshawn Lynch) and can unleash one of the league’s premier pass rushers in Von Miller. He has three sacks in three games and might possess more quickness than Penn can handle.
Miller also needs no reminder of what’s at stake with the Raiders in town.
“Divisional games are probably the most important games we have in the NFL,” he said. “You have to win divisional games to go to the playoffs, plain and simple. They mean everything.”
The Broncos are not as dynamic on offense as they are fearsome on defense. Quarterback Trevor Siemian is young, promising and occasionally erratic. He throws to an established wide receiver in Demaryius Thomas and leans on a rugged running back in Vallejo native and Cal alum C.J. Anderson.
Siemian and his mates probably view the Raiders as a chance to find their mojo. Oakland, solid defensively in its first two games, played terribly in the loss at Washington — missing tackles, giving the quarterback plenty of time, letting receivers roam free. That won’t work Sunday.
Broncos head coach Vance Joseph expects an “electric atmosphere,” with both teams focused and desperate after flat performances in Week 3. Another defeat drops the loser into third place in the AFC West — and leaves an early sense of vulnerability in the chase for larger goals down the road.