Yesterday, the Denver Broncos gutted out a 10-7 win over the Las Vegas Raiders at home on Thursday Night Football. That was Denver's seventh consecutive victory and Vegas' third straight loss. Now that the game is behind us, we have one takeaway for both the Broncos and the Raiders.

DEN: Bo Nix hasn't been as great as we've been making him out to be.

Last night was another unimpressive performance by Denver Broncos quarterback Bo Nix. He completed just 16 of his 28 pass attempts for 150 yards, a touchdown, two interceptions, and a sack. As a result, he finished the game with his lowest passer rating and QBR of the season (54.2 and 27.2).

Nix struggled mightily against a Las Vegas Raiders squad that isn't that good at defending the pass. Vegas allows 214.2 passing yards per game this season, and Bo Nix fell well short of that mark. Coming into last night, the Raiders had only forced four interceptions, yet Nix threw two against that lackluster secondary. Las Vegas typically allows opponents to record passer ratings of 91.0. Nix didn't even come close to reaching that benchmark. The Raiders don't have a terrible pass defense, but they're also not great in that area. With a quarterback who is supposedly taking a big leap forward in his second year as a starter, you would expect him to have a better performance against a 2-7 team that has had plenty of issues defending against the league's best quarterbacks.

If we're being honest, Bo Nix is having a sophomore slump. He is projected to have a much lower completion percentage and more interceptions this season compared to last year, as well as a lower passer rating. Last season, he finished seven games with a passer rating of at least 100. This year, he has only two such games. Last season, Nix had just six games with a QBR below 50. In ten starts, he has already had four of those games. Don't get me wrong, the kid is fine and will be a good quarterback in this league, but we need to stop pretending that he is having a second-year jump like Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson had.

LV: The rest of the offense has failed the Raiders' skill position players.

Believe it or not, the Las Vegas Raiders have a slew of big-time offensive playmakers. Brock Bowers is one of the five best tight ends in the NFL when he is healthy, arguably the best. Running back Ashton Jeanty has all the skills you want to see from a running back drafted in the top ten. Michael Mayer may be a backup tight end, but he has the traits needed to be a starter on more than half the teams in the NFL. Even wideout Tre Tucker is poised to take a big third-year leap, with projected career-highs in receptions, yards, and touchdowns. The offensive skill position players are not the problem for the Raiders; it's everything else associated with the offense.

Going into this season, I was very worried about the offensive line. Through the first ten weeks of the campaign, it appears that I was justified in my concerns. As of November 1st, the Raiders had the 26th-ranked offensive line in the NFL, according to PFSN. There is also statistical evidence to back up this ranking. Vegas is tied with the New York Giants for seventh-most sacks allowed this season (27). Simultaneously, the Raiders are 29th in rushing yards per game (87.4) and tied for 31st in yards per carry (3.7). Las Vegas' o-line is failing its high-level offensive weapons.

We also can't talk about the Raiders' shortcomings without mentioning quarterback Geno Smith, who has taken a huge step back after an incredibly successful three-year stint as the Seattle Seahawks' starter. In Seattle, he was a two-time Pro Bowler who averaged 249.5 passing yards per game and only 11.7 interceptions per season. With Las Vegas, Smith is averaging 204.9 passing yards per game and has already thrown 12 interceptions in just nine games. As a matter of fact, he's on pace to throw 23 interceptions this year, the most INTs in a single season since 2019, when Jameis Winston threw 30 picks. Geno Smith has failed to meet the expectations placed on him before the season began, which is probably the biggest reason why the Raiders have struggled so much this year.