It all comes down to this. Two teams. One game. No playoff aspirations. Let’s do this. The Raiders take the field in Denver in Week 17 for both teams’ final game of the 2020 season. One team hoping to not be losers, the other team hoping to make the other team losers. Both teams hoping to go out on a sorta high note.
Let’s get to the matchups.
Raekwon McMillan vs Air
Middle linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski remains on the Raiders’ reserve/COVID-19 list which means McMillan will get another start. Last week he got his first start with the Raiders against the Dolphins who had traded him away prior to the start of the season. And it’s safe to say they feel even better about the trade now than they did last week.
The battle for McMillan will be with air. That’s what he grabbed a lot of last week while whiffing on the runner. His fight is to avoid the whiff and find the player with the ball. The Broncos have a couple of capable running backs in Melvin Gordon and Philip Lindsay. To recap: No, air. Yes, Gordon and Lindsay.
Josh Jacobs vs Alexander Johnson
In their first meeting, Johnson led the Broncos with 14 tackles. And all of them were on a running back. Then again, Jacobs put up 112 yards in the game while averaging 5.33 yards per carry.
Jacobs will be looking to reach 1,000 yards on the season. He needs just 24 yards to do it. Though this season it took him 15 games to do it while he hit 1150 yards in 13 games as a rookie. He had 69 yards on 13 carries last week, giving him his second-highest yards per carry average of the season (5.31). His highest of the season? Against the Broncos in Week 10.
Darren Waller vs Everyone
A hearty good luck to the Broncos trying to keep Darren Waller from getting the ball. Last week against Miami, he was on a mission, catching everything thrown his way, oftentimes with a defender all over him. He is seven catches from setting a new franchise record for receptions in a season and it’s hard to foresee him being denied from getting it.
Young DBs vs Discipline
Last week it was Damon Arnette letting his man get behind him to make the catch that essentially lost the game for the Raiders. The week before it was Trayvon Mullen getting lit up by Justin Herbert and the Chargers. The last time these two teams played it was Johnathan Abram making one bonehead play after another.
Friday Jon Gruden pointed to his young secondary in particular as the players he most wants to see step up in the finale and he mentioned Arnette and Abram by name. Mullen has had some fine play at times this season. And he’s played in all but one game this season. While Mullen is a rookie, Abram is basically a rookie (missing his entire rookie season) and each of them has missed several games this season.
Nicholas Morrow vs Noah Fant
Morrow has been the Raiders’ best linebacker this season. Fant has been the Broncos’ best receiver for much of the season. Something’s gotta give.
The Broncos’ offense has been pretty putrid most of the season. They scored just 12 points in their loss to the Raiders in Week 10 and have scored less than 20 points in nine games this season. But they’re 4-2 in games they’ve scored 20 points or more.
Morrow had a big part in stopping the Broncos in their first meeting. And he did a lot more than holding Fant to three catches for 18 yards on seven targets.
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