Stick here for live updates and analysis as Denver takes on the Raiders at Empower Field at Mile High.
Live updates
Pre-game updates
Scouting report (1:27 p.m.): Check out how the Broncos match up with the Raiders in Luca Evans’ scouting report.
Game predictions
Parker Gabriel, Broncos writer: Broncos 31, Raiders 13
Thursday Night Football games can be weird. Teams that get off to strong starts fare abnormally well. Denver … hasn’t been that. They’ve been a fourth-quarter comeback juggernaut with a minus-1 point differential the first 45 minutes of games and plus-60 mark in the fourth. But they’re also rolling, motivated and locked in. The Raiders are flailing and just traded away top receiver Jakobi Meyers. Sean Payton’s team should take care of business, then turn its attention to a Nov. 16 showdown with the Chiefs.
Luca Evans, Broncos writer: Broncos 31, Raiders 19
Feels like a good week for Sean Payton and Bo Nix to get back on track in an offensive season that’s fallen off the rails and back on again for nine straight games. The Raiders are plenty more fearsome with tight end Brock Bowers back in the mix, and this could be the week that the Broncos’ secondary caves a bit without Pat Surtain II. But Denver’s red-zone defense is just too good to let Las Vegas turn this into a shootout.
Troy Renck, columnist: Broncos 29, Raiders 10
Coach Sean Payton digs stats, uses them as motivation. He passed along this nugget this week: Per his research team, home teams that lead at halftime of Thursday night games win roughly 90 percent of the time. So maybe the Broncos will let down their hair and go to the air beyond screens and checkdowns in the first quarter. This is a get-right game for the offense and a chance for the defense to show it can do the one thing missing on the resume: get takeaways.
Sean Keeler, columnist: Broncos 30, Raiders 13
Geno Smith ranks 26th out of 36 QBs in sack rate (7.75%) among NFL signal-callers who’ve played at least 100 snaps this year. Brock Bowers will be a problem, sure, but we already know the script, don’t we? Bo Nix throws screen after screen early while Vegas jumps out to a 13-0 lead. The natives get restless with a quarter-and-a-half left. Then the Broncos go on a 30-0 spurt the rest of the way to close out the tilt. Hey, if the formula’s rocking, why change it now?
Broncos-Raiders NFL Week 10: Must-reads
How Broncos’ receivers have adapted to Sean Payton’s shifting personnel: ‘You just gotta make it work’
In the Broncos’ Week 8 blowout of the Cowboys, Denver ran out 25 unique combinations of receivers, tight ends and fullbacks, as charted by The Denver Post. Fifteen of those combinations rotated in for a single play.
Halfway through Payton’s third season in Denver, a bevy of fresh and young faces are in varying stages of understanding how to stay on the field. Engram, a nine-year NFL vet, is playing by far the fewest snaps of his career. Third-round rookie Pat Bryant has worked himself into the rotation by blocking. Second-year wideout Troy Franklin has learned to better play the Z next to stalwart No. 1 Courtland Sutton. Read Luca Evans’ story.
Renck: Darren Rizzi finally owned Broncos’ special teams errors, but can Sean Payton trust him to fix it?
The Broncos’ special teams are like “Pulp Fiction.” The longer you watch, the more questions you have.
Denver ranked top five in special teams last year under Ben Kotwica. This season, it is considered a win if the Broncos commit fewer than five blunders a week under Darren Rizzi.
The Broncos are bad. They have a new coordinator. Are the two related? It sure seems like it. However, the man whose only opinion matters, coach Sean Payton, does not think so. Read Troy Renck’s column.
Broncos confident after quiet NFL trade deadline: ‘We’ve got all the pieces’
On a blockbuster day in the NFL, the Broncos made no moves. The NFL trade deadline provided earthquakes elsewhere in the league, but nary a ripple in Denver.
They didn’t rent a veteran on an expiring contract. They didn’t pay a premium for a young star. They didn’t bolster their tight end room, overhaul their receiver group or pursue an inside linebacker.
General manager George Paton and head coach Sean Payton surveyed the landscape over the past few days, made some inquiries and fielded calls like all teams do, but in the end didn’t find a deal they liked for their first-place club. Read Parker Gabriel’s story.
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