The Oakland Raiders' loss to the Denver Broncos was nothing short of humiliating. The Broncos had looked terrible with Tim Tebow under center, and no one could fathom the idea of Tebow leading the Broncos out of a paper bag, let alone to a win on the road against a division rival that is clearly better than they are. And then the Raiders laid one of the biggest eggs in the NFL this season. However, as terrible as the loss to the Broncos was, there were some positives to take away from the game.
The most obvious positive was the run game as Michael Bush impressed once again in place of the injured Darren McFadden. One of the other big bright spots was not necessarily what happened in the game, but rather, the potential that was shown in the game. One of the reasons Hue Jackson and others were so excited about the trade for Carson Palmer was because he could help the Raiders young and dynamic receiving corps reach their potential.
On Sunday, you could already see that potential beginning to come true. Palmer targetted Jacoby Ford and Denarius Moore a significant number of times and made sure that both of these guys were involved in the game. Moore received the most attention with 12 targets, while Ford received the second most with 6 targets. Moore was able to convert his targets into 4 catches for 61 yards, while Ford had an impressive day turning his 6 targets into 5 catches for 105 yards and a touchdown.
Both of these guys are serious threats with the ball in their hands. Unfortunately for the Raiders up to this point, they have not had the ball in their hands nearly enough this season. Palmer looks as though he is ready to change that. The more the Raiders can get the ball into the hands of these two young recievers, the quicker they will deveop and become the game changers the Raiders know they can. Hopefully Palmer will continue to give both of these guys a healthy dose of the football in future weeks so the Raiders passing game can reach its full potential.