The Oakland Raiders, they of the ballsy 2-point conversion for the win to beat New Orleans earlier this season, stomped the defending champion Denver Broncos 30-20 on Sunday night. It was Oakland's second straight win over their longtime AFC West nemesis -- after a string of eight consecutive losses -- and the first time any team has hit the 30-point mark on Denver in 15 games.
They treated the vaunted Broncos defense like no one else does. The Broncos were powerless to stop it. And both sides knew it.
In running the ball 43 times for 218 yards and three touchdowns -- eye-popping numbers for the NFL, especially given the opponent -- the Raiders explained afterward that their running playbook was reduced essentially to the size of a napkin.
"In the second half, we only ran two (running) plays," Raiders offensive lineman Donald Penn told NFL.com. "We ran the same running play ten times in a row. We kept wearing them down with double teams. They knew it was coming. It didn't matter. That's when you take somebody's will."
Added offensive line coach Mike Tice: "It's a play our defense calls Crunch, an off-tackle run that Pittsburgh brought into the league way back when, and a whole lot of us have since stolen. It's basically a double-team -- center and guard, or guard and tackle, or tackle and tight end -- on one of their guys, depending upon what front they show. They tried to bring a couple of guys down low to pull us off the double team, which didn't surprise me, cause it was something Wade did to me when he was the head coach of Buffalo a long time ago. "It didn't matter. We kept executing that play. We could have announced it. They knew it was coming." Never has this touchdown celebration been more appropriate.