The Oakland Raiders ran roughshod over the vaunted Denver Broncos defense on Sunday night. After the game, Donald Penn revealed the full extent of the Raiders’ dominance over their AFC West rival.
“In the second half, we only ran two (running) plays,” Penn revealed after the game, per Mike Silver of NFL.com. “We ran the same running play ten times in a row. We kept wearing them down with double teams. They knew it was coming. It didn’t matter. That’s when you take somebody’s will.”
Offensive line coach Mike Tice broke down the play they used to crush Denver’s will.
“It’s a play our defense calls Crunch, an off-tackle run that Pittsburgh brought into the league way back when, and a whole lot of us have since stolen,” Tice said. “It’s basically a double-team — center and guard, or guard and tackle, or tackle and tight end — on one of their guys, depending upon what front they show. They tried to bring a couple of guys down low to pull us off the double team, which didn’t surprise me, cause it was something Wade did to me when he was the head coach of Buffalo a long time ago.
“It didn’t matter. We kept executing that play. We could have announced it. They knew it was coming.
That’s what you call humiliation in the NFL.
Silver’s full column from the Sunday Night Football game that showcased Oakland’s emergence as a legitimate Super Bowl contender is worth the read. In it he also highlights Penn as a driving force behind the team’s strategy to ram the ball down Denver’s throat.
“Why the (expletive) are we not running the ball?” Penn screamed. “They can’t stop us! Just run the damn ball!”
And run the ball the Raiders did.
Quarterback Derek Carr, who averaged more than 40 attempts per game prior to hosting the Broncos, threw the ball just 31 times and played the role of game manager to perfection.
Instead of their usual pass-heavy scheme, Oakland ran the ball 43 times for 218 yards. Latavius Murray benefited with his best game in a long time with 114 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
It was a signature win for the Raiders, who now lead the AFC West by one game over the same Broncos and surprising Kansas City Chiefs.