The Oakland Raiders fell behind early in their AFC West showdown with the Denver Broncos and are now stuck playing catch up. The Broncos drove right down the field and scored on their first drive, then answered the Raiders field goal with one of their own to take a 10-3 lead after the first quarter at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.
Denver worked almost exclusively out of the shotgun on the opening drive, but did work the running game in. Willis McGahee had three rushes in the 11 play, 80 drive that Peyton Manning capped off with a 22-yard touchdown pass to Joel Dreessen.
Oakland responded with a scoring drive of their own, with the biggest play being a short pass to Marcel Reece that he took for 31 yards. The Raiders couldn't find the end zone, though, and Sebastian Janikowski was called on for a field goal that he nailed.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, their defense couldn't really corral the Broncos. Just before the end of the quarter, the Broncos drove 77 yards to get to the Oakland three-yard line. The defense did finally step up, forcing Denver to kick a field goal, but that pushed the Broncos' lead back to a touchdown.