Raiders brawl, win:
A hopeful sign? Or are Broncos just that awful?
After a firstquarter fight, Oakland keeps playoff chances alive by beating Denver.
Take your pick: The Raiders finally made a dramatic move on defense, one they should have made weeks ago, and gained a spark. Or, Raiders defensive players should lobby to play against the Denver Broncos every week.
On Sunday at the Coliseum, the Raiders’ defense put together its most complete game of the season, holding up its end in a 21-14 win over Denver. The defense recorded a shutout through the first three quarters for the first time since December 2012, finally got an interception, recorded five sacks and basically manhandled the Broncos’ inept offense.
“For three quarters,” Oakland head coach Jack Del Rio
said. “they played with certainty, decisiveness, fast . ... For three quarters, it was a good effort.”
And then came the fourth quarter, when an ankle injury forced out terrible starting quarterback Paxton Lynch, and mediocre Denver quarterback Trevor Siemian almost mounted a comeback.
But, as they say in the NFL — except in Cleveland and Santa Clara — any division win is big. And with the Raiders’ victory, they moved to one game out of the AFC West lead. This is a shocking development, considering how poorly they’ve played and how often they shoot themselves in the foot.
And how stupid they can be, like the first-quarter brawl, when Michael Crabtree and Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib renewed their gold-chain-related feud, leading to both men plus Gabe Jackson being ejected. Punishment from the league is certain to follow.
All the suspects in the brawl were gone by the time locker rooms opened after the game. Crabtree’s teammates blamed the incident on history — a year ago Talib ripped the chain off Crabtree’s neck, and he did it again Sunday while the two were intertwined. (Question: Why can football players wear chains, a practice that seems incredibly dangerous?) But it was a boneheaded move and the Raiders may be without one of their top receivers in a future game or two.
“I like to count on my guys to keep their poise and composure,” Del Rio said.
He couldn’t Sunday, in what — from the accounts of several parties — sounded like a premeditated act of revenge by Crabtree.
Once the brawl ended, Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch escorted Talib to the tunnel and the game resumed. The Raiders, who seemed to have gotten their hotheaded quota out of the way, went back to playing actual football.
The Raiders’ performance came five days after Del Rio fired popular defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr., replacing him with John Pagano. Some thought the move was scapegoating. Others thought it should have been made in the offseason. There was a faction who believed it signaled panic on the part of Del Rio and internal chaos. All theories could potentially be correct.
Did the shakeup make a difference?
“I don’t think so,” said linebacker Bruce Irvin, who played for Norton in Seattle and Oakland. “I just think guys were letting it rip today. We had a great week of practice and it finally translated to the game.”
Defensive end Denico Autry said, “It gave us fuel. It hurt, but it gave us fuel to push on.”
Irvin thought it was the defense’s best performance of the season.
“I think so,” he said. “Guys were communicating. I think we took a step today.”
So maybe the real answer behind the Raiders’ success lay in the hot mess that is the Denver offense?
That seems more likely. Denver started Paxton Lynch, who suffered an injury. He was replaced by Siemian, who beat the Raiders in Denver in October.
The collapse of the Broncos — a team that won a Super Bowl 22 months ago — is illustrative of the entire division. The AFC West, which had Super Bowl aspirations just weeks ago, has devolved into chaos. The oncedominant Chiefs have lost five of six and cling to a one-game lead over the Raiders and Chargers, who beat Oakland in October. The Broncos are the bottom feeders.
But the Raiders remain in control of their destiny and have a shot at winning the division.
“We just go out and practice our butts off,” Irvin said. “When you’re more aggressive, and you fly around, good things happen.”
The Raiders’ defense came into the game ranked 26th in the league, last in interceptions, and tied for 31st in sacks. The Broncos were the cure, ranked 18th in offense and 25th in sacks allowed.
The Raiders got pressure on Paxton Lynch, the tall, immobile quarterback John Elway took in the first round last year. Lynch replaced Siemian, at the same time that former Raiders offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave replaced fired Mike McCoy as offensive coordinator in Denver. But Lynch was terrible. When he went out with an ankle injury, the Siemian-Musgrave combination clicked.
But the Raiders survived and now face another cupcake home game against the New York Giants before they start their walk across hot coals to the finish line. The final four games — in Kansas City, a Sunday night home game against Dallas (at least as it is scheduled right now) and road games against Philadelphia on Christmas night and the Chargers on New Year’s Eve — will test whatever resiliency and confidence the Raiders may have found on Sunday.
Take your pick: the Raiders are playoff-worthy. Or they simply benefited from the very bad Broncos. We won’t know for another five weeks. Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion