Broncos 38 – Raiders 24
Daniels marvels at the collapse of the Raiders with Palmer: The Raiders have to be terribly demoralized by this loss. Carson Palmer, who 3/4ths of the national media is excoriating by retconning his career to make him a terrible quarterback, had a first full game with 300 yards passing and 3 touchdowns. Somehow, the Broncos found a way to win with an 85-yard punt return for a touchdown and 75 yard run by Willis McGahee. Now the Raiders have to turn right around and go to San Diego for the league’s first Thursday night game and could find themselves going from a share of the division lead to arguably out of the race in a 4-day span.
But Rhett’s focus is on Tebow: This game was a lot closer than the score reflects, but Tim Tebow did better than last week. But still not very good. Tebow still had passes being lobbed in every direction and it looks strange for him to be complaining to a ref/player/coach about an incomplete pass when he didn’t even get close to the mark. If it wasn’t for Willis McGahee, this would have been a totally different ball game. The Raiders looked good in the game, but too many costly interceptions from Palmer cost them in the end.
My Take: The Raiders lost this as much as Denver won it… that much is immediately clear, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t positives to take from Tebow’s performance. He’s so unconventional, that he seems to really open things up, in particular, for the running game. His passes, when they’re off, are so off that no one can catch them, offense or defense. Is he still the worst quarterback in the NFL? By conventional measures maybe, but he has a shot to be something different. The Raiders, meanwhile, are done for the year. Palmer showed he is what he looked like at the end of his Bengals career and gone is the rising star of years past. Without McFadden, the Raiders must rely too much on Palmer, who isn’t up to it, combining Bret Favre’s poor decision making without anywhere near the arm to make up for it.
