Raiders’ losing streak reaches 15 in a row(w/video)

OAKLAND - Halfway through the second quarter Sunday, the Raiders had the ball and a 10-6 lead over the first-place Denver Broncos. Despite missing three injured cornerbacks, Oakland had managed to intercept Peyton Manning twice, and had kept him and the Broncos out of the end zone.

It seemed a mirage, too good to be true. And it was.

Manning, the five-time NFL most valuable player and future first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer, found his touch, and found an apt victim in the Raiders. He led the Broncos to five straight touchdown drives, powering a 41-17 victory that had O.co Coliseum mostly cleared out by midway through the fourth quarter. Manning wasn’t even playing by then. He watched the final quarter from the bench as backup Brock Osweiler mopped up.

As aggrieved as the Raiders were over their ninth loss of the season, they sounded somewhat awed by the Denver quarterback.

“He’s Peyton Manning. He’s arguably the best to ever play the game,” Oakland linebacker Miles Burris said a short while after he was consoled by teammate Sio Moore, and then by defensive coordinator Jason Tarver, while crying at his locker. “So if you’re not on your Ps and Qs every single play, if you’re not perfect on your technique, he’s gonna see it. He’s got a vision of the entire field, and you have to give him credit to be, whatever he is, 38 years old, 17 years playing at the top of the game. He knows something we don’t.”

The Raiders’ demise may have been inevitable in this game, but it gained real momentum late in the second quarter. They still led 10-6 with 3:30 left before halftime when rookie quarterback Derek Carr tried to hit tight end Mychal Rivera with a short pass and instead was picked off by Denver’s Bradley Roby.

Three plays later, Manning threw a little dump pass to running back C.J. Anderson in the left flat. Burris missed a tackle. So did linebacker Khalil Mack. So did safety Charles Woodson. Anderson slanted across the field left to right and wound up with a 51-yard touchdown reception.

“That’s one I’ll be thinking about all night,” Woodson said.

Soon enough, the Raiders had more to ponder. The Broncos forced a punt and got the ball back with 1:40 to play before halftime, and Anderson picked up a couple first downs on running plays. On second-and-9 from the Oakland 32, Manning fired a perfect strike into Emmanuel Sanders’ arms just inside the end zone. The touchdown survived a replay review, and just like that Denver was up 20-10.

“And it’s like, how the hell did that happen?” Woodson reflected. “Those were on us. ... They’ve got a good team, one of the greatest quarterbacks to play the game but those two plays... I look at those two plays and as a team we’ll look at those two plays before half and say, ‘Wow, how did that happen?’ ”

Having survived the Raiders’ challenge in the early part of the game, the Broncos opened the throttle in the third quarter, scoring on three consecutive possessions. Meanwhile, Oakland went three-and-out twice, then lost possession when another of Carr’s passes to Rivera got away. Denver’s T.J. Ward intercepted that one and ran it back to the Raiders’ 34.

The quarter ended with Denver up 41-10. Manning finished the afternoon with 31 completions in 44 attempts for 340 yards and five touchdowns.

Early on, though, the veteran quarterback looked anything but comfortable. On the second play of the game Manning floated a pass for Sanders and Raiders cornerback DJ Hayden intercepted near midfield. Sebastian Janikowski wound up kicking a 41-yard field goal to give Oakland a quick 3-0 lead.

Early in the second quarter, Manning faked a handoff and tossed a pass, but it didn’t fool defensive end Justin Tuck in the least. Tuck leaped, batted the ball, made a diving catch and got up to run before Manning could touch him.

That play set up the Raiders’ at the Denver 12, and on third-and-4 Carr found Brice Butler, who made a nice reaching catch on the run at the back of the end zone to put Oakland on top 10-6.

It shouldn’t have surprised anyone that Manning was able to revert to superstar form.

“JT (Tarver) was doing a good job of mixing up things and we were doing a good job of disguising things and going off some things we had seen from (Manning) and how he was checking plays at the line, and was able to use that to our advantage,” Tuck said. “Obviously, he adjusted. That’s why, if he is not the best quarterback to ever play this game, he’s definitely one of the best. He adjusted and we weren’t able to adjust well enough to keep up.”

Carr eventually threw a touchdown pass to Rivera with 48 seconds left in the game to make the score slightly more respectable. All in all, though, it was a tough day for the Raiders’ second-round draft choice. Carr connected on 30 of 47 passes for 192 yards and didn’t have a completion for longer than 10 yards before the fourth quarter.

“Listen, we tried to throw some shots down the field - you guys were there - and we took a couple chances there and there wasn’t a whole lot of separation,” Raiders coach Tony Sparano said. “... Some of those situations, there was one or two that we felt like we had a chance to make, but the pocket broke down on occasion there and I think he got hit one time right up the middle on a ball he threw deep. They were moving him around pretty good.”

The Broncos improved to 7-2, best in the AFC West and tied for the top record in the conference. They are hunting for a return Super Bowl appearance, and Manning is on the short list for another MVP trophy.

The Raiders, meanwhile, are 0-9 and trying to avoid becoming the second 0-16 team in NFL history.

“We hate it,” Woodson said. “We hate that that’s even in the minds of our fans. Does it weigh on us? No, I don’t think it weighs on us. Just losing games is what weighs on us. We’re not worried about ‘we’re 0-and-whatever.’ We’re just tired of losing games.” You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com