Raiders look to continue run of dominance over Broncos

The Raiders have eclipsed the 30-point mark nine times in their past 22 games. Three of those offensive outbursts have come against the rival Broncos.

All three have been Raiders victories.

It’s part of a brief run of dominance that has seen the Raiders win five of the past six games in the series, a stretch they will look to extend when they host Denver in a pivotal AFC West clash with postseason implications at 1:25 p.m. Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.

It’s difficult to pinpoint the reason for the recent success, though offensive coordinator Greg Olson wishes it were possible.

“If you knew what it was, you’d do it every week,” Olson said. “You’d repeat it every week. But we expect to obviously get their best.”

The Raiders’ success has been the result of different recipe each time.

Derek Carr lit up the Broncos for 340 yards and two touchdowns in the first meeting this season, a 34-24 road win in the first game after Jon Gruden resigned. The Raiders averaged 11.7 net yards per attempt, the only time this season they have eclipsed double-digits in that category.

The ground game dominated the meeting at Allegiant Stadium last year, racking up 203 yards and four touchdowns in a 37-12 victory on Nov. 15 that still marks their most lopsided win in Las Vegas.

In between was another big statistical day for Carr in last year’s season finale.

He threw for 359 yards but also had two interceptions in a last-minute, 32-31 win in Denver.

That game was won on a Josh Jacobs touchdown run with 24 seconds remaining that was followed by a 2-point conversion pass from Carr to Darren Waller.

“When you watch those games, it sounds so cliché and so repetitive, but we did the little things all right,” Carr said. “Our technique, our fundamentals, decisions, our eyes are in the right places. We’re not having bad eyes and letting things sneak up on us.”

That success, however, does not guarantee future success.

“In the NFL, one thing I do know, the last game doesn’t dictate the next game. We’ve proven that as a team,” Carr said.

Denver has a great deal of individual talent and Coach Vic Fangio is known as a defensive guru, but it hasn’t all come together on the field for the Broncos. Football Outsiders has them as the No. 21 defense in the league by one metric, and the unit traded away star Von Miller since the last meeting against the Raiders.

“I’ve talked about Von so many times that you guys know how I feel about him,” Carr said. “But the guys behind him are also professionals.

“They got some really good football players on that side of the ball. They always have. And with that they have a great scheme. Their defense is very difficult to go against. It’s always a big challenge for us.”

Denver has the game circled, as well. While the rivalry always turns up the intensity a bit, the loser of Sunday’s game is all but eliminated from any postseason discussion.

Fangio is also aware the results haven’t gone his way recently in the series.

“They have a balanced offensive attack. Anytime you’re balanced, that always makes it tougher to defend,” Fangio said. “They’re a good team. They’ve managed to beat us four out of five times.”

Raiders’ defensive tackle Solomon Thomas said those are the kinds of things assistant coaches will remind players of all week when they are on the wrong side of a run like that.

“You develop that chip on your shoulder,” he said. “You don’t want to let a team, especially in your division, do that to you. You want to shut that down. I’m sure it’s been talked about. It’s why we have to bring it even harder every play, every day.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.