{"id":268256,"date":"2025-11-07T06:59:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268256\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T06:59:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T06:59:14","slug":"denver-defense-delivers-as-broncos-edge-raiders-to-keep-nfls-best-record-denver-broncos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/268256\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver defense delivers as Broncos edge Raiders to keep NFL\u2019s best record | Denver Broncos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denver\u2019s defense bailed out the Broncos in a 10-7 squeaker over the reeling Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> on Thursday night, sacking Geno Smith six times to atone for spotty performances on offense and special teams.<\/p>\n

The Broncos (8-2) own the league\u2019s best record, but they didn\u2019t look anything like it on a windy night in the Rocky Mountains.<\/p>\n

They barely outplayed the Raiders (2-7), who just traded away top receiver Jakobi Meyers, in winning for the seventh straight time overall and extending their NFL-best home winning streak to 10.<\/p>\n

Wil Lutz\u2019s 32-yard field goal with five seconds left in the third quarter broke a 7-7 tie and followed JL Skinner\u2019s block of AJ Cole\u2019s punt, setting up Denver\u2019s struggling offense at the Las Vegas 12.<\/p>\n

The Broncos lost two yards on three plays and Lutz, who was way short on a 59-yarder earlier in the third quarter, nailed it through the wind to give Denver their first lead.<\/p>\n

Cornerback Kyu Blue Kelly\u2019s interception set up the Raiders at the Denver 45-yard line in the waning minutes, but Daniel Carlson was wide right on a 48-yard field-goal try with 4:26 remaining that would have tied it.<\/p>\n

The Broncos chewed up the rest of the clock with a methodical drive at last and ending up taking kneel-downs in victory formation inside the Raiders 20-yard line after Las Vegas ran out of timeouts.<\/p>\n

The game was a typical Thursday night flag-fest with neither team able to get into an offensive rhythm and a steady stream of players \u2013 including Smith \u2013 retreating to the sidelines and the blue tent to have injuries checked out.<\/p>\n

The Broncos\u2019 trend of slow starts continued as they managed just six yards in six first-quarter snaps and trailed 7-0 after allowing Ashton Jeanty\u2019s four-yard touchdown run.<\/p>\n

The Broncos finally got a first down on their fifth possession when JK Dobbins scampered for a 13-yard gain on first down. Four plays later, Bo Nix found Troy Franklin for an 11-yard touchdown to tie it at 7-7.<\/p>\n

Denver had 116 yards in the first half, two more than Las Vegas. Denver\u2019s defense tallied five first-half sacks. The Broncos have 46 so far this season. That\u2019s the most through 10 games by any team since at least 1990.<\/p>\n

The Broncos again made several miscues on special teams, and rookie Jeremy Crawshaw shanked three first-half punts, which traveled 30, 36 and 38 yards. Skinner made up for that by blocking Cole\u2019s punt with his facemask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denver\u2019s defense bailed out the Broncos in a 10-7 squeaker over the reeling Las Vegas Raiders on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-268256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}