DENVER — This may be the best feeling about a 7-9 season the Broncos have ever had.
Coming off two dreadful seasons of 5-11 and 6-10, the Broncos started this season losing their first four games.
But the team responded to the tough-love coaching of first-year boss Vic Fangio and rookie Drew Lock played so well in the season’s final five games the Broncos believe they have found their franchise quarterback for years to come.
When the Broncos defeated the Raiders, 16-15, here on a chilly late-December Sunday afternoon before 67,007 (9,327 no shows) at Empower Field at Mile High, it gave Denver a 7-5 record following its 0-4 start, and 4-1 mark with Lock as their quarterback.
"A part of my initial feelings right now, I’m not really happy with some of the things that we did in the fourth quarter there,'' Fangio said, referring to the team's 16-3 lead that would have been completed blown if not for a Shelby Harris swat on the Raiders' game-winning, 2-point attempt with 7 seconds remaining. "But yeah, to start the way our season started and end up 7-9, although 7-9 is a record that nobody’s proud of and it’s not the rich tradition that this franchise is used to, I do think it says something about the guys. Like I’ve told you guys—we’ve got a good team. Our record isn’t good, but we have a bunch of good guys and good teammates that are together. These guys gave great effort all year. I don’t think that’s debatable.''
The latest win wasn't easy. After Brandon McManus' third field goal put the Broncos up 16-3 early in the fourth quarter, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr led his team's comeback. When he threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow with 7 seconds left, the Raiders were within, 16-15. Raiders coach Jon Gruden didn't want an extra point and overtime, though. Not with his banged up team in the altitude.
He went for 2 points and the win, but Shelby Harris -- the Broncos' defensive line who has been the league's at swatting passes this season -- knocked Carr's pass down and the Broncos won.
“We lost our linebackers. We only had I think 1.5 linebackers left,'' Gruden said. "We really didn’t want to go into overtime. (Running back Jalen) Richard was out. (Receiver Tyrell) Williams was out. We were running out of men. We want to win a game right there. We had the play we wanted, had to hold them up. They just made a nice play—bat the ball down. We felt we had momentum on our side and given the injuries that we had it would have been tough on us in overtime to keep playing.”
>> Listen to a game recap on Klis' Mike Drop podcast below
The Raiders, who entered the season finale with an outside chance at making the playoffs as the final AFC wild card, instead fell to 7-9. The Raiders technically edged out the Broncos for second place on a tiebreaker – but all that means is they get a slightly tougher schedule next year.
So dominant were the Raiders in the first half against the Broncos, they should have gone into intermission up by double-digits.
Oakland averaged 8.1 yards per play to 4.0 for the Broncos. The Raiders had 251 yards in total offense to just 108 for the Broncos.
Yet, because the Raiders are the Raiders and Fangio’s Broncos impressively hung tough through season’s end, Denver was leading comfortably in the second half, or so it seemed.
Despite rarely having the ball, Broncos’ rookie quarterback Drew Lock played well in engineering two, first-half scoring drives. The first resulted in a McManus field goal and the second ended with a 1-yard touchdown flip from Lock to fullback/tight end Andrew Beck.
The touchdown came one play after Broncos’ receiver Courtland Sutton drew a 27-yard pass-interference call from Raiders’ cornerback Trayvon Mullen.
The Raiders had scoring chances halted on a missed field goal, a Denver goal-line stop, and a fumble.
The Raiders were in control early, if not on the scoreboard. Oakland had 128 yards in total offense in the first quarter to just 24 for the Broncos. It had five first downs and 10:03 of ball possession to one and 4:57 for the Broncos.
Yet it was 0-0 at the quarter break.
The Raiders blew a scoring chance off their first possession when quarterback Derek Carr, who despite having enough time to toast a bagel while in the pocket, slightly overthrew a wide-open Hunter Renfrow at the goal line.
That was followed by Daniel Carlson, who grew up in Colorado Springs, missing a 38-yard field goal.
Later in the first quarter, Carr converted a third-and-9 from his 8-yard line by flipping a screen pass to tight end Darren Waller, who cut in off a block and raced 75 yards to the Broncos’ 17.
Credit Broncos’ nickel corner Will Parks with a hustle tackle that saved a touchdown. The Raiders’ drive settled for a short Carlson field goal early in the second quarter and a 3-0 lead.
Lock answered with completions of 19 yards to Courtland Sutton, who went up to snag the pass between two defenders, and 14 yards to DaeSean Hamilton.
With running back Phillip Lindsay struggling early to find room, the Broncos’ drive sputtered and settled for a McManus’ 43-yard field goal that tied the game, 3-3, midway through the second quarter. McManus drilled field goals of 49 yards late in the third quarter and 51 yards early in the fourth to give the Broncos a 16-3 lead.
Lindsay finished with 53 yards on 18 carries, enough to give him a second consecutive 1,000 yard rushing season. He surpassed the 1,000-yard barrier with an 8-yard fourth quarter scamper around right end and finished the season with 1,011 yards.
“It feels good, but it was a tough one,'' Lindsay said. "It was probably the toughest 1,000 yards I’ve ever had to get in my life, when it comes to football. Everything happens for a reason and I got to showcase my toughness and my ability to be an every-down back. Now, I just need to go build on this. I need to look at myself in the mirror and find ways to get better in the passing game, the blocking game, and the running game. I want to be an elite running back and I want to be a top five running back in the league.”
The Raiders weren’t done squandering scoring chances in the first half, though. Another screen, this one to Jalen Richard for 33 yards in the second quarter, helped move Oakland to first and goal at the Broncos’ 7.
Carr appeared to have a 5-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Renfrow, but replays showed the receiver was touchdown just shy of the goal line. The next play a fourth and goal from the half-yard line, Denver’s goal-line defense stuffed fullback Alec Ingold for no gain.
PHOTOS | Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders
Gruden challenged and while one goal-line camera view appeared to show Ingold broke the plane, it was too close to overturn. Gruden, who has been vocal in his disappointment about the officiating in recent days, was 0 for 2 in reviews on back-to-back touchdown reviews.
“We had the touchdown on Renfrow called back by our friends in New York,'' Gruden said."Then I thought we scored. I thought we were in on [FB Alec] Ingold’s play. That’s a zilch. Then we had a drive where we settled for a field goal—a good defensive team. Fangio’s good. They have good players, but we left a lot out there. There were plays to be made. We didn’t make them. It comes back to me.”
The Broncos’ offense, meanwhile, mostly struggled in the first half before taking advantage of terrific field position set up by safety Trey Marshall’s strip and recovery of a fumble by Raiders’ receiver Marcell Ateman.
Lock was efficient for a second straight game, finishing 17 of 28 for 177 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions.
“Last week, I said you'd like to draw up a perfect script and go 5-0 and throw three touchdowns each game for 300 yards and whatnot,'' Lock said. "Being able to have all these different experiences, coming from behind, going on the road, getting your butt kicked on the road, winning your first game, I think all of those will help add up to me having more experience and going into next year feeling very confident that no matter what situation we get put in, we will be able to come out positive on the other side.”
His favorite receiver, for a second consecutive game, was DaeSean Hamilton, who has five catches for 65 yards. Sutton had four catches for 52 yards but also drew two major penalties.
It all would have been for naught had Shelby Harris not come through with his unofficial 10th pass deflection of the season. His 9 swats during the regular season led the NFL. Alas, plays on 2-point conversion attempts don't count toward game stats. Both the Raiders and Broncos know exactly how much Harris' play did count.
“You knew it was going to be a quick pass and it was going to be pretty tough to get a sack on that, so you have to do the next best thing and knock the ball down,'' Harris said. "I saw his eyes, and there was good coverage and good pressure, and I just batted the ball. It’s a team thing, and it was just a great final play.”
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