The Denver Broncos survived a defensive battle with their AFC West rivals, the Oakland Raiders, in an ugly 16-10 win out by The Bay. Here's three things we learned about both teams in this defensive slog of a game.
Denver Broncos
Peyton Manning looked a step slow with his reads on Sunday. Charles Woodson read him beautifully for two interceptions on throws that vintage Peyton wouldn't even attempt. Manning still has some left in the tank, but signs of slowing down are starting to crop up.
Denver's running game is broken. CJ Anderson and Ronnie Hillman combined for just 43 yards on 18 carries against a Raiders run defense that hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire this year.
The Broncos defense is the reason why they're Super Bowl contenders. They held the Raiders to 288 total yards, but more importantly, they clamped down any time the Raiders closed in on the red zone.
Oakland Raiders
The Raiders defense is still a major work in progress, but they can take heart in the fact that a struggling Broncos offense wasn't able to get out of the blocks against them.
QB Derek Carr still has plenty of work to do on trusting his progressions and making nice, clean throws under duress. He's growing, yes. But, he still needs plenty of reps to get his game to "franchise QB" level.
This game would have been a lot different if kicker Sebastian Janikowski had drained two field goals that are normally child's play with his booming leg. Those could have turned this game on its head in a big way.
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