LAS VEGAS — For the Broncos, the Raiders were just an annoyance to wave off, a gnat to be swatted and forgotten as quickly as it buzzed into their field of vision.
Such is the state of things in the 2025 season.
Denver’s eight-year road losing streak to the Silver and Black is consigned to history; its fourth consecutive win in the series and 10th-straight triumph this season — by a 24-17 count in front of a crowd of 62,442 at appeared to include more Denver partisans than Raiders rooters — was more than a perfunctory accomplishment, but far less than the trajectory-altering wins of earlier this season over Philadelphia and Kansas City.
Once Denver’s defense moved past the first-quarter jitters that echoed its early stumble in last month’s 10-7 win over the Raiders, normal service was restored until the final moments, when the Raiders tacked on a pair of scores that mattered only to gamblers.
Those who scoreboard scout will see “24-17” and crow that the Broncos once again eked out a one-score win.
Those who watched saw something different.
Because once Marvin Mims Jr. broke into the open field in the second quarter with the first touchdown on a punt return in a brilliant career in that discipline that lacked only a trip to the end zone prior to Sunday, the Broncos could name their score.
Sandwiching Mims’ jaunt were 14-play touchdown marches to begin each half. One drained eight minutes and 54 seconds from the first-quarter clock; the other dripped nine minutes and 13 seconds from the third quarter. A 19-play slog in the fourth quarter covered 85 yards and was effectively a death march for the Raiders; it chewed up 10 minutes and 17 seconds.
These were the three longest drives in terms of time elapsed this season. In the Sean Payton era, only a drive against Kansas City’s JV squad last January that gobbled up 11 minutes and five seconds took more time off the clock.
Second by second, minute by minute, the Broncos had the Raiders trapped in the sort of torturous nightmare only Edgar Allan Poe could conceive.
“I mean, it was a seven-point game, but it didn’t really feel necessarily like that at the end,” tight end Adam Trautman said. “Obviously we would have liked to finish with the ball as well, but, we just weren’t able to get that first down [in the final two minutes].
“But yeah, we controlled it and it felt really good to look up at the end of the first quarter and it was like, ‘Oh, we had one drive. Why? Oh, we had [14] plays.’ Like, that’s awesome.”
BRONCOS ON TO A POTENTIAL SUPER BOWL PREVIEW
The Broncos probably won’t have the same type of game awaiting them next week. Las Vegas’ front is stout, and Maxx Crosby can wreak havoc, but it doesn’t have the same explosiveness or game-wrecking ability as the Green Bay Packers have displayed with Micah Parsons settling into his new environment.
Green Bay nudged back into first place in the NFC North after defeating the Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears in the last 11 days. The Pack sits a half-game back of the top seed in the NFC playoff race.
Calling next week’s game a “Super Bowl preview” isn’t unfounded as far as the hype machine goes; these teams have two of the NFL’s four best records. If this isn’t a possible, viable Super Bowl LX matchup, what is?
Make no mistake, the Broncos already know next week’s game is different. They had to take care of business Sunday in Las Vegas, and they did.
But now they face a team fighting for the No. 1 seed, a surging Jacksonville Jaguars team leading the AFC South — and one that isn’t out of the race for the AFC’s top seed — before closing with two AFC West rivals.
Playtime is over.
It’s ON.
“Obviously, shoot, if you want to make it to the big game, you gotta win big games. And every week that we get a chance to put our stuff on tape and show what type of team we are, it is an opportunity that we can’t let pass us,” defensive end John Franklin-Myers said.
“And these next three, four games is huge to where we want to go as far as seeding and so far and so forth that we can’t take it for granted.
“And we know we’re going to practice, we’re going to prepare for these teams, and we’ll play our style of football.”
After Sunday, that style can now be said to include clock-chewing drives of seemingly interminable length. Yeah, it was only the Raiders. But it was something the 2025 Broncos hadn’t done before.
Now, they have another club in their bag at the most opportune time to find it.
