Raiders 51–0 Rout of Denver (1967)

During the 1967 season, the Oakland Raiders recorded a 51–0 victory over the Denver Broncos, a result that stood out in the rivalry's early decades as the largest margin of victory through that era [11]. The game reflected the competitive gap between the franchises at that moment: Oakland was an ascending power in the AFL while Denver remained less consistent. Box-score compilations and season summaries list the 51–0 score among the Raiders' most dominant single-game performances in franchise history and mark it as an early data point in the Broncos–Raiders ledger [11]. The rout demonstrated Oakland's offensive firepower and defensive shutdown capacity in that contest; contemporaneous reporting of Raiders performances in the late 1960s emphasized the team's ability to produce high-scoring outputs and decisive wins. The exact date is cataloged in rivalry histories and team archives that track season results across the AFL years [11].

The 51–0 score matters for the rivalry as a statistical milestone: it establishes an early high-water mark for Raiders dominance that Broncos historians and fans reference when discussing momentum swings between the clubs. As an extreme outlier, the game underscores the rivalry's cyclical nature — long stretches of dominance by one club can be followed by competitive parity and reversals in later decades [11].

After the 1967 rout, both franchises continued to evolve roster construction and coaching approaches; Oakland's success in the late 1960s laid groundwork for its sustained competitiveness into the 1970s, while Denver's program-building would later produce more balanced contests and playoff-level teams. The 51–0 game remained part of the rivalry's historical record used in later retrospectives [11].