DENVER —For the first time since 2005, the Broncos completed an unblemished record at home with their 47-14 win over the Raiders on Sunday.
"It means a lot," Terrance Knighton said. "Good teams don't lose at home, and that's in any sport — basketball, football, hockey, baseball — you always want to win at home and defend your turf."
The last time the Broncos successfully accomplished that same feat was in 2005 with Jake Plummer under center and now about a decade later, the team with a different cast has done it again.
"Obviously it's important how we finish our division. Obviously it's very important, our red letter games, our home games," Head Coach John Fox said. "I thought it was important that we won in front of our home fans and done that every time we've been here this year in the regular season. I think that hasn't been done a whole lot. I think that was the biggest thing, to finish the regular season strong."
Finishing strong has been a point of emphasis for the team, and especially the defense. Not only did they do that well on the season with this last game of the regular season, but in this game as well.
Check out the action from an explosive second half in Denver, where the Broncos coasted to a 47-14 win.
Broncos teammates come together while David Bruton Jr. is down with an injury.
McCray forces a sack-fumble of Derek Carr, which Tony Carter returns for the touchdown.
McCray strip sacks Derek Carr, with Tony Carter recovering the fumble for a touchdown.
The defense held Oakland to just 35 yards in the last quarter with two of their four drives ending in a turnover. On the second drive, Lerentee McCray flew past the offensive line for a big hit on Derek Carr. Carr then fumbled the ball and Tony Carter picked it up at the 20 and scampered to the end zone. On the Raiders' last drive with under two minutes left, Carr tried to throw deep down the right sideline for Andre Holmes, but Josh Bush adjusted and cut under Holmes for an interception to end the game with a kneeldown to follow.
"It was good to see the DBs get picks, guys who don't usually play get some playing time, show their worth," Malik Jackson said. "It was awesome. I'm glad those guys got to do it and just got to keep the ball rolling."
As the Broncos head into the playoffs, a strong finish at home to complete a perfect record before the home fans was just what they wanted.
