Denver Broncos thrash Oakland Raiders by 26-13 in Week 14 to complete a season sweep – NFL Recap
Denver Broncos got a step closer to getting a first-round bye in the playoffs after giving a thumping 26-13 defeat to lacklustre Oakland Raiders in Week 14 game on Thursday, December 06, 2012, at O.co Coliseum, Oakland, California.
The star player of the game was elite quarterback Peyton Manning who threw his 5,000th pass completion of the career and became the fastest player to achieve this feat. The quarterback also threw a franchise record 30th touchdown pass
of the season.
With Broncos currently leading American Football Conference (AFC) with 10-3 record, Manning has now put up his 12th season in which his team has won 10 or more games.
However, Manning has not gone complacent and wants to improve his performance. During the postgame talk, Manning said:
"We talk about getting better. All the other stuff, that's not what we talk about. If we get better each week, we'll see what happens from there."
Manning finished the game with 26 of 36 for 310 yards and a touchdown. He also got a strong response from the rushing game which was a bit lacklustre in recent weeks.
Running back Knowshon Moreno rushed for career-high 32 times for 119 yards and a touchdown.
Raiders got their sixth consecutive defeat as the team failed to give their head coach Dennis Allen a commemorative victory after his father’s death.
Allen was absent from the team’s practice session for two days to be with his family. Talking to the media after the game, Allen said:
"I took my father off life support (voice cracking), and that's not easy to do. So was it hard? Yeah, it was hard. But I know my father would want me to be here with this football team, and I wanted to be here with this football team. So I'm sure you guys
can imagine it wasn't an easy situation."
Running back Darren McFadden returned to the field for the first time after recovering from knee injury and looked in good form until he reinjured his ankle and left the game.
Broncos looked dominant right from the start as they scored a touchdown followed by a field goal to finish the first quarter 10-0.
They went on to strengthen the lead to 13 points with another field goal by kicker Matt Prater in the second quarter.
Raiders opened their scoring card through a touchdown by McFadden during the final minutes of the first half as the score went 7-13.
It was a one-way traffic in the third quarter as Broncos scored two field goals along with a touchdown to take the score to 26-7.
Raiders scored a touchdown in the final quarter, but failed to go further and Broncos won it by 26-13.
Tags: