It’s been a difficult proposition this season for teams to win on the road on Thursday nights. Then again, most of those teams didn’t have to play the Oakland Raiders either.
Denver quarterback Peyton Manning posted the 70th 300-yard game of his career throwing for 310 yards, a touchdown and an interception and Matt Prater kicked four field goals as the Broncos knocked off their division rival 26-13 on Thursday night.
The Raiders played a decent first half and trailed just 13-7 heading into halftime after Darren McFadden scored from six yards out on a touchdown pass from Carson Palmer with 2:06 left in the second quarter.
The porous Raiders defense actually held strong in holding Denver to just a field goal early in the third quarter despite three snaps from inside the Raiders 2-yard line.
Then Oakland fell apart.
Linebacker Von Miller sacked Palmer and forced a fumble that was recovered by Mitch Unrein at the Raiders 2-yard line. Two plays later, Knowshon Moreno scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Broncos a 23-7 lead. The Raiders went three-and-out on the following possession and Prater kicked his fourth field goal of the night, a 33-yard attempt, to give Denver a 26-7 lead.
Palmer connected with Darrius Heyward-Bey for a 56-yard touchdown with just under six minutes to play, but Denarius Moore was ruled out of bounds on the two-point conversion attempt to preserve a 26-13 cushion for the Broncos.
The Broncos then rode Moreno in piecing together a 12-play, 38-yard drive to keep the sticks moving and run out the final five minutes off the clock. In his third start for the injured Willis McGahee, Moreno carried 32 times for 119 yards and a touchdown for the Broncos.
Palmer completed 19 of 30 passes for 273 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. McFadden carried just 11 times for 52 yards for the Raiders in his first game back after missing four games with a high ankle sprain.