DENVER — An emotional win Sunday for the Las Vegas Raiders ended a painful week for the team.
The Raiders won 34-24 at the Denver Broncos in their first game since Jon Gruden resigned as coach in the aftermath of his email scandal, and their first game with Rich Bisaccia as interim coach.
It was also the first game Bisaccia, a longtime special teams coordinator whose career began in 1983, worked as a head coach at any level.
The offense responded to offensive coordinator Greg Olson taking over playcalling duties from Gruden as Derek Carr authored his fourth 300-plus passing yard game of the season (the only Raiders quarterback with more such games in the first six games of a season was Rich Gannon, who had five in his 2002 MVP season). Henry Ruggs III caught three passes for 97 yards — including a 48-yard touchdown — Josh Jacobs rushed for 53 yards and a TD on 16 carries and the oft-forgotten Kenyan Drake scored twice, once by air and once by ground.
Defensively, the Raiders forced four turnovers — interceptions by Brandon Facyson, Tre’von Moehrig and Johnathan Abram, and a fumble recovered by Denzel Perryman that was forced by Solomon Thomas — and Maxx Crosby had three sacks.
An emotional bump, after such a week, was expected. Unknown, though, was whether it would be positive or negative. It ended up being positive as the Raiders improved to 4-2 and ended a two-game losing streak.