Broncos, Raiders make NFL history with penalty-riddled Week 10 matchup

Matt Sullivan

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Broncos, Raiders make NFL history with penalty-riddled Week 10 matchup image

The Denver Broncos and the Las Vegas Raiders played one of the rougher games of the 2025 NFL season. On Thursday Night Football, the Broncos scraped by with a 10-7 victory.

Both offenses were struggling all night long, and while the Broncos wound up winning, their performance was a forgettable one.

But, amid such a slog, both the Raiders and Broncos made some regretful NFL history. According to Bill Smith at Next Gen Stats, this Week 10 matchup was just the second time since 1950 that both teams finished with more penalties than first downs.

Broncos, Raiders make undisciplined NFL history

"Broncos and Raiders each had more penalties than first downs tonight." Smith writes. "Only the second time since 1950 this happened, and it's fitting the first was a battle of 0-5 expansion teams in 1976."

Through the four-quarter affair, the Broncos and the Raiders each got 10 first downs. Both also had 11 penalties, with the Raiders losing 83 yards and the Broncos losing 78 yards due to penalties in this Week 10 matchup.

Such an outcome came to be thanks to great defense, sloppy offense, conservative play calling, and strange special teams.

Raiders' punter AJ Cole had multiple incredible punts downed inside the one-yard line, while he had another punt blocked.

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The Broncos punted and shanked multiple punts early, but the Raiders couldn't capitalize after their second drive of the game.

Denver started the game with four-straight three-and-outs, while the Raiders didn't get a first down in four third-quarter drives.

This game was a rough one, with neither team putting together more than one strong drive. Other than their touchdown drives, the only scoring drive was a four-play, -2-yard drive from the Broncos that started in field goal range after a blocked punt at the Raiders 12 12-yard line.

This undisciplined performance from the Raiders and Broncos was just the second such performance, where both teams had more penalties than first downs, since 1950.

With the only other such game being a matchup between two expansion teams, this Week 10 Raiders-Broncos matchup has a case to be called the sloppiest game in NFL history.

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Contributing Writer