November 24th, 2008 
Michael Loede 
Posted in 
Revenge is best served cold, and on Sunday, the Oakland Raiders avenged a season opening 41-14 beating by topping the Denver Broncos 31-10 in Denver. Former Bronco WR Ashley Lelie turned in his best performance as a Raider with 4 catches for 92 yards and 1 TD.
For the second week in a row, Oakland again scored a special teams touchdown with a 89 yard punt return by Johnnie Lee Higgins, and Darren McFadden also scored twice with 2 one yard TD runs. It was the kind of game that Raider fans have waited for all year with all cylinders clicking. Oakland’s 31 points surpassed their season high of 23 and marked their biggest scoring output last December when they beat the Broncos 34-20.
Said Lelie of his first big game this year ” I’ve been dreaming for this moment ever since I left here. It feels good that it was with the raiders. Ever since I left, this is what I wanted to do – to come back to Invesco and show I’ve still got it, come back and kind of put it to the people who didn’t think I was good enough..” Oakland QB JaMarcus Russell had a solid game as well, going 10 of 11 for 152 yards and the Lelie TD.
With the score tired at 10-10 in the third, Lelie made a spectacular 51 yard reception that set up McFadden’s first of two 1 yard rushing touchdowns of the day. After that, it was all downhill for the Broncos as the Raiders scored a total of 3 touchdowns in a span of 18 plays. Said Coach Cable, ” It was huge, you could feel it on the sideline. It’s something we have been thirsting for. It felt like the weight of the world was lifted off our shoulders. We just relaxed and played.
Broncos defensive end Ebenezer Ekuban said of the game, ” The only thing we won was the penalty battle. They had more penalties then we did. Other then that, they kicked our butts in every phase of the game.” The win against Denver puts the Raiders at 3-8 with the Chiefs coming to McAfee Coliseum this Sunday for another division battle.
