The Oakland Raiders travel to Denver for a Week 7 match up with the AFC West rival Broncos. The Raiders go into the game with a 2-4 overall record, but a 1-0 record in the AFC West. They will be facing the 2-4 Broncos, who will be playing in their first division game of the season.
The Raiders hope to return from the Mile High City with a 2-0 record in their division. "The season's still fairly early, 2-4, and next we have a divisional game," said T Khalif Barnes. "If that doesn't make you fired up and ready to bounce back and get this win then you're doing this for the wrong thing. The Denver Broncos, we have a chance to be 2-0 in the division, I don't know when the last time that happened, so that's important too. That's the kind of things we're looking at right now; just all our focus is on Denver and winning this divisional game."
The Oakland defense will have their hands full with Broncos QB Kyle Orton, who has nine touchdown passes on the season and a 94.2 passer rating. "We have to get Kyle out of rhythm," said Head Coach Tom Cable. "You have to do that. If he's allowed to stand back there and just throw it around, they're very good at receiver. That's his thing when he's comfortable he's throwing good."
Orton will be throwing to a receiving corps headlined by Brandon Lloyd and Eddie Royal. "I think they are as good a receiving group collectively as we may play all year," said Coach Cable. "They're very good right now. They throw it to all of them. Its not like you say, well we have to take that guy out, or that guy out, you have to cover all three of those guys."
Raiders CB Stanford Routt and the rest of the defense have been preparing for the receivers throughout the week. "As a defense, we have to stop them, no questions asked, and no more excuses, and no more mental errors," said Routt.
Despite the fact that the Broncos have had more success this season with the passing game, the defense is still aware of the run. "Our thought still is run, because they've got backs that can beat you and they came in here last year, same head coach and everything and they ran for a lot of yards," said Defensive Coordinator John Marshall. "We still have to make sure that they know that they can't run the ball, that it's taken care of."
The players have been preparing in Alameda all week for the match up with the Broncos and are excited for another division game, this time on the road. Although the Raiders know that the past does not play a part in this weekend's game, they are cognizant of their success in Denver – the team has been victorious at INVESCO Field the past two seasons. "We definitely love this match-up, especially anytime you play a division opponent, it's big," said S Michael Huff. "Especially going after Denver, you know we played well there lately. We're looking forward to that match-up. The main thing is winning the AFC West so we know that to do that we've got to beat Denver this week, we beat San Diego before so we're trying to be 2-0 in the division so we definitely need this win."
WR Nick Miller is also looking forward to traveling to Denver for the big division rivalry. "It's going to be intense and it's going to be loud and we have to prepare for that, which we have been so we'll be ready for it."
The Raiders will play the Broncos at 1:15 P.M. this coming Sunday at Invesco Field in Denver. Follow the action live on Raiders.com, the **Raiders Facebook page**, and **Twitter**.
