OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Rich Gannon threw three touchdown passes Monday night, two of them going to Tim Brown and two of them coming after he suffered a mild concussion, leading the Oakland Raiders to their first victory over the Denver Broncos in eight tries, 38-28.
Oakland improved to 6-1, sharing the best record in the NFL with the St. Louis Rams and surprising Chicago Bears. The Raiders opened a lead of 1 1/2 games over the St. Diego Chargers in the AFC West with the Broncos (4-4) falling 2 1/2 games out of the division lead. Oakland coach Jon Gruden, in his fourth year on the job, defeated the Broncos for the first time.
With the Raiders owning a 7-6 lead and threatening to increase it, Gannon scrambled around right end on first and goal from the seven and fell out of bounds at the one-yard line. But as he did, the helmet of Denver defensive back Denoy Kennedy slammed into Gannon's helmet.
Gannon was briefly motionless, but eventually got to his feet and was helped to the sidelines. He wound up missing only one play and that play turned out to be a one-yard touchdown run by Zack Crockett.
The Oakland quarterback, who opened the scoring with an 11-yard pass to Brown at the end of the first possession of the game, returned to hit Jon Ritchie with a four-yard touchdown toss with 70 seconds left in the first half that gave the Raiders a 21-6 lead at intermission.
Gannon then led Oakland on a 52-yard drive late in the third quarter that ended with a 19-yard throw to Brown and gave the Raiders a 16-point cushion.
Denver battled back to close within eight with 10 minutes remaining on an 11-yard throw from Brian Griese to Desmond Clark and a two-point coversion pass to Rod Smith.
But in short order, Oakland put the game out of reach on a 31-yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski and a three-yard scoring run by Crockett that followed a 33-yard interception return from William Thomas. Those 10 points came in a span of 22 seconds.
Gannon completed 20 of 25 passes for 183 yards in the first half and finished with 25 of 34 for 242 yards. Nine of those completions went to Brown for 95 yards. Brown caught four passes for 44 yards on the opening drive of the game and had eight for 76 in the first half.
Gannon has not thrown an interception since the first game of the season.
Griese kept Denver in the game for more than three quarters by completing 22 of 32 passes for 221 yards. But the Broncos had to settle for Jason Elam field goals on each of their first two possessions even though they had first and goal on both drives. Griese also threw a two-yard touchdown to Smith at the end of a nine-yard drive to open the second half that briefly narrowed the Denver deficit to 21-12.
After Oakland opened an 18-point lead with their 10-point flurry, Griese was replaced by Gus Frerotte and he threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Smith with two minutes remaining.
The first of Elam's field goals gave him 1,000 points for his career and also produced the 20,000th points in the history of Monday night football.
The game also marked the return Denver's former Super Bowl MVP Terrell Davis, who has been out of action with a knee injury and who carried 17 times for 70 yards.
