Best in the West

For as much as Oakland Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio tried to tell his team this week that Sunday night’s game against the Denver Broncos was nothing special, just any other AFC West game, this was clearly no ordinary night.

This was the night the balance of power in the AFC West began to shift.

With a 30-20 win against the Broncos, who have won the past five division titles, the 7-2 Raiders are alone atop the AFC West, which has quickly become the NFL’s most competitive division. But it wasn’t just that the Raiders beat the defending Super Bowl champions on Sunday. It was how they did it.

The Raiders were the better team — the more explosive offense, the more aggressive defense — and in running all over the Broncos and their vaunted defense, the Raiders showed they are no longer a team on the rise. The Raiders are back, and the NFL is better for it.

“We’re growing to expect success now,” Del Rio said.

Sunday felt like a throwback night at O.Co Coliseum, where the Black Hole was full and loud like it hasn’t been in years. Fans here have endured 15 years of losing, and Sunday’s game against the Broncos was arguably the biggest game in Oakland since 2002, the last time the Raiders made the postseason.

“We look at the history of the Raiders, the ‘Just Win Baby.’ The grit and grind. We embrace that and we’re going out there and trying to do that,” receiver Andre Holmes told USA TODAY Sports.

The playoffs now look like a very real possibility, thanks in large part to quarterback Derek Carr and a dominant performance by the Raiders offensive line. The Raiders rushed for 218 yards, the most the Broncos have allowed this year, while running back Latavius Murray scored three touchdowns.

“The way those guys were imposing their will, that was a fun thing to watch,” Carr said.

There was no accident in the way the Raiders got here. It was through deliberate drafting and responsible spending in free agency, which was a process that required some patience in a business that stands for little of it. But the Raiders had to overhaul not just the roster, but find a way to change a culture of losing.

That process truly started in 2014, with a draft class that included pass rusher Khalil Mack in the first round, Carr in the second and Murray in the sixth, and it accelerated in 2015 with the hiring of Del Rio. Now, just over halfway through Del Rio’s second season, the Raiders have already matched last year’s win total.

“We know we can beat every team. We thought the same thing last year, we just didn’t pull out some of the games. This year we’re doing that. We’re finishing games,” Holmes said. “Part of it is just knowing you can do it, and part of it is getting the right players in to transform the culture.”

It starts with Carr, who despite pedestrian passing numbers Sunday night (just 184 yards and no touchdowns) should firmly remain in the conversation for NFL MVP.

He and the Raiders offensive line held up against Denver’s pass rush, and Carr had little trouble picking on a Broncos secondary that was clearly hampered by the absence of cornerback Aqib Talib, who missed his second consecutive game with a back injury.

The Raiders defense, meanwhile, showed significant improvement, especially early in the game in holding the Broncos without a first down on their first four possessions. There were lapses, sure, like a 69-yard catch-and-run touchdown by Broncos running back Kapri Bibbs in the fourth quarter that briefly quieted the Black Hole, but the Raiders now head into their bye week brimming with confidence.

“We’ve got a lot of things we’ve got to fix, but we’ll do it with a smile on our face,” Del Rio said.