Peyton Manning Focused on Oakland Raiders After Blowout in New England

Perhaps the worst thing that could have happened for the Oakland Raiders other than losing a great opportunity to upset the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks last Sunday was the New England Patriots embarrassing the Denver Broncos at home as Tom Brady fueled Peyton Manning’s fire thanks to a slap in the face courtesy of an emphatic win over the 2013 AFC Champions at Gillette Stadium. A loss for the Broncos that has Manning dialed in for a chance to get back on track as Denver gets set to make the trip to the Coliseum for one of their two clashes with the still winless Raiders over the final two months of the regular season.

Talking to the Denver Post, Manning admitted that the loss could be a good thing if the Broncos can respond against Oakland. Something that may not bode well for the banged up Raiders secondary that is missing starters Carlos Rogers as well as safeties Tyvon Branch and Usama Young who are out for the season on the injured reserve.

“Losing a football game, the key is how you respond to it,” Manning said Wednesday to the Post. “I’ve seen teams lose games and they don’t recover from it. I think we’re focused on trying to respond and play better.

“Can (the loss) be a good thing? Yeah, if you respond. I think you’d like not to have to get slapped in the face to get refocused; I think you’d like to be focused every week. But if it happens, it’s about trying not to repeat it, trying to improve, and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

“I think any time you come off a loss, your job is to study the next opponent and also study what you have to do to get better as a team,” Manning said. “So I think every week is gut-check time.”

Manning has had little problems beating the Raiders since coming to the AFC West and tilting the balance of power in the division firmly back to Denver. Oakland have yet to beat Manning over the past two seasons, and although DJ Hayden along with rookie TJ Carrie played admirably against Russell Wilson they will be facing a much different beast in Manning on Sunday. Raider Nation will be hoping for a home upset, but with a vengeful Manning looking to take his frustrations out on Oakland things could get very ugly this weekend for the struggling 0-8 defense.