The Denver Broncos travel to Oakland to face the Raiders for Week 14's Thursday Night Football. With that being said, my predictions lie heavily on the blue and orange as they will likely destroy the Raiders in this game.
There are just too many elements working against the Raiders. First of all, they haven't won a game since Week 8 against the Kansas City Chiefs. Second of all and most importantly, they are facing a red hot Broncos team that has yet to lose a game since Week 6.
Peyton Manning has been all the difference for these Broncos. They remained with most of the same guys who played there with Tim Tebow and Manning has simply raised everybody's level of play this season.
Manning, though not the quarterback with most passing yards in this matchup, presents himself as a dominant force. While in the Broncos' seven-game winning streak, Manning has thrown 18 touchdowns and six interceptions. His completion percentage has been as high as 80 percent, but never dipped lower than 59.5 percent.
The only advantage the Raiders might have in this game is their quarterback, Carson Palmer, who might win the passing battle as he has thrown for 3,522 yards so far in the season, 30 yards better than Manning.
But like every sport, it's about how many points you score. The Broncos come into this matchup ranked third in the NFL averaging a little over 29 points per game.
More bad news for the Raiders? They allow the most points in the NFL as opponents are averaging over 31 points per game.
It gets worse than that however as the Raiders' defense has allowed 187 points in the last five games for an average of over 37 per matchup.
Predictions: Peyton Manning will get his snaps in the first half. I would imagine that Coach John Fox will eventually sit his starters if they jump out to a huge lead, which should happen. Manning goes for 280 yards with three scores... in the first half.
Final Score: Broncos win 30-19.
