Aidan O’Connell threw for 244 yards and two touchdowns for the Las Vegas Raiders in a 27-14 win against the visiting Denver Broncos in the season finale for both teams on Sunday afternoon.
Jakobi Meyers caught a touchdown pass and ran for another and Zamir White rushed for 112 yards on 25 carries for the Raiders (8-9), who won their eighth in a row against the Broncos.
Jarrett Stidham started his second straight game for the Broncos (8-9) and completed 20 of 34 passes for 272 yards with a touchdown and interception.
Meyers scored on a 5-yard run to cap a 13-play, 78-yard drive and give Las Vegas a 7-0 lead with 1:44 left in the first quarter.
He took a handoff from O’Connell and appeared to be looking to throw the ball as he sprinted to his right, but he reversed course and ran back to the left with plenty of room to continue into the end zone.
Denver answered with an 11-play, 84-yard drive and tied the score 7-7 on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Stidham to Jerry Jeudy, who weaved through four tacklers on his way to the end zone with 10:34 left in the first half.
Denver briefly thought it recovered a fumble by O’Connell, but the play was reversed and ruled an incomplete pass. Daniel Carlson then kicked a 49-yard field goal on the next play to give Las Vegas a 10-7 lead with 7:09 left in the first half.
O’Connell engineered a 12-play, 98-yard drive in the final two minutes of the first half and capped it with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams in the corner of the end zone with seven seconds left to extend the lead to 17-7.
Jimmy Garoppolo replaced O’Connell for one possession early in the second half because of O’Connell’s finger injury. O’Connell returned and hit Meyers for a 33-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 24-7.
Jeudy’s 47-yard reception to the 3-yard line set up a 2-yard touchdown run by Javonte Williams on fourth down to cut the lead to 24-14 with 10:09 left.
Carlson booted a 21-yard field goal with 2:20 left to make it 27-14.
–Field Level Media
