The Broncos and Raiders worked together to turn back the clock to a time where most, if not all, the Thursday Night Football games were borderline unwatchable.
Aesthetics don't factor into the standings, so Sean Payton will still be pleased that Denver worked through some sluggishness to notch a 10-7 victory over their division rivals. The win kept them atop the AFC West at 8-2 with a massive contest against the Chiefs looming. Las Vegas fell to 2-7 and appears destined to play out the second half of the year balancing the quest for wins and future draft position.
So sure, there are some story lines that emerged and there were some cool moments. But on the whole the two teams offered up some unattractive football for 60 minutes. Al Michaels, who has seen it all and is also a particularly tough grader on these types of things, didn't seem too pleased with the offerings.
"A couple of kneeldowns will take us to the finish line," the legendary play-by-play voice said as the Broncos bled out the clock to end the game. "As we mentioned at the outset they were like a horse that stumbles out of the gate, falls way behind—not tonight, a little different."
Kirk Herbstreit then jumped in to make a point about the other participants in this race.
'Well, the pace ahead of them wasn't real fast," he said.
And Michaels couldn't have loved that comment any more.
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"Like a $3,000 claiming at a county fair," Michaels concluded. After a brief pause he mentioned that rules analyst Terry McAulay was just off-camera, laughing at the comparison.
We don't know about all of that, but Denver really didn't have to do much to win and the Raiders are galloping to nowhere. The real question is how the Broncos will stack up against the other thoroughbreds in the AFC—or perhaps it's if they deserve to be included in that stable.
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