Khalil Mack does the impossible: Makes Raiders look genius

Demaryius Thomas of the Denver Broncos is hit by inside linebacker Ben Heeney #51 of the Oakland Raiders at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on December 13, 2015. And according to Raiders.com, after Mack’s impressive performance against Denver, this makes the 31st time a member of the Oakland Raiders has won the Defensive Player of the Week award. That matchup could help decide which of the two teams gets a first round bye in the playoffs and depending on how things go with Manning, it could feature two backup quarterbacks against each other.

Manning stood on the sideline Sunday after skipping Denver’s trips to Chicago and San Diego and watching the Broncos overtime win against New England from inside the locker room area. But if the Broncos go with Osweiler the rest of the way and fail to advance far into the playoffs, their decision will be second-guessed for a long time.

The Broncos had four drives in the first half that got inside the Raiders’ 25-yard line, but each of them ended with field goals.

The Raiders also come in with a ton of momentum after going to archrival Denver and winning an emotional comeback game, 15-12.

Osweiler refused to blame his receivers for their many mistakes, his coaches for a conservative game plan, his running backs for gaining just 1.6 yards a carry, or his protection for getting him clobbered. All were by Khalil Mack, with four coming at Schofield’s expense, including an end-zone sack that led to a third-quarter safety. We all know Manning can’t make certain throws he used to be able to make, even with his pre-snap prowess. “[Steelers head] Coach [Mike] Tomlin and the Rooneys, they gave me my opportunity in the National Football League, so I’m forever thankful for that”. Both of those are home games.

Come on now, after the start Brock Osweiler had you know P. Manning was just a bit anxious about his starting under center, ever again. In the video, you’ll see that he was surrounded by nothing but Broncos fans (well, there were a few Raiders fans behind him, but they didn’t look too eager to help him out). Kubiak had to modify his run-oriented offense with Manning playing either in the shotgun or the pistol. They still outgained the Raiders by almost 200 yards. He was bothered by the injury during the week and then got stepped on in warmups.

Carr completed just 12 of 29 passes for 135 yards. Next, I think we need to say “You’re Welcome” to Payton Manning. I’ll talk to (head athletic trainer Steve Antonopulos).

“I believe in each red-zone appearance that we were seeing different things”, said quarterback Brock Osweiler.

“What you see statistically, it doesn’t really determine whether you think is better or not, but at the same time, I’m going to keep working to get better”.

SPECIAL TEAMS: D-minus. Brandon McManus’ leg is still strong, but his three missed field goals in the last three games are a cause for concern; when his 49-yard attempt slammed against the left upright in the fourth quarter, the Broncos lost a chance to tie the game.