What a way to ring in the holiday season...in the NFL edifice where every home game is Halloween!
The Oakland Raiders (4-8) brand a 34-20 score and their shield logo onto a choice piece of the 2007 Denver Bronco campaign, and snap a 5-game losing streak to the now mediocre Mile-High mustangs.
Raider running back Justin Fargas may as well sign his name next to that brand. He finished the game with 146 of the team's 175 rushing yards. Fargas did it with 33 carries, and he scored a touchdown.
Oakland's rookie quarterback JaMarcus Russell made his NFL debut in the first half. He threw seven passes, completing four of them, and amassed 56 yards. Josh McCown started the game while incumbent first-stringer Daunte Culpepper nursed a sore right quadriceps injury. McCown's 14 completions for 141 yards and three touchdowns were arguably the best Raider QB statistics since the last time Oakland scored 34 points against Denver: Monday night, November 11, 2002 when Rich Gannon worked magic at Invesco Field.
Neither McCown nor Russell were sacked.
Penalties? Sorry Chris Berman - there were more committed this Sunday by your Bay Area team. The Raiders only suffered 3 for 20 yards (the 49ers were called for 7, costing them 55 yards in a 31-14 loss to Carolina).
Perhaps equally big for Oakland is the disappearance of more of those streaks Raider haters love beating their gums about. A five-game skid versus Denver is now gone, as well as a 12-game home losing streak to AFC West Teams.
For Denver, the loss plunges them to 5-7, and two games behind AFC West-leading (which sounds far better than it actually is) San Diego.
The Broncos head home to play Kansas City, then travel to Houston before coming back to California to play the Chargers.
The Raiders meanwhile will head to the contiguous 48's version of frozen tundra, otherwise known as Green Bay, Wisconsin. They haven't beaten the Packers in 20 years. But, what does that mean? Another chance to break a streak, currently a 4-game stretch against Green Bay. Plus, the Raiders' week one win at Lambeau Field in 1987 was one of only 5 victories in the year that Whitney Houston wanted "to dance with somebody," and if history is to be good to the Raiders, they would win their fifth game of the year there in '07.
Avenging Super Bowl II, nearing its 40th anniversary, could also come to be for the Raiders.
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