The football gods giveth and the football gods taketh away. The Raiders opened this game with a gift by forcing a fumble on the opening kickoff which Andre Holmes recovered and ran down to the Giants 5 yard line. Terrelle Pryor sneaked it into the endzone just 2 plays later.
Unfortunately then came the taketh away part. Marquette King's first punt of the game was blocked by Giants rookie Damontre Moore and it bounced straight backwards. It was picked up and returned for an easy touchdown to tie the game at 7.
Oakland's offense was having trouble getting things going with penalties being a decent sized nuisance for them. Luckily their defense came into this game ready to make up for their poor play last week.
They got the Giants into a 3rd and 20 and then Lamarr Houston punched the ball out of Peyton Hillis' arms. The Raiders recovered the ball deep enough into NY territory that the sputtering offense did not stop them from getting points. They couldn't get a touchdown but they did add on a 33 yard field goal. It made the score 10-7 which is what it would remain at for the end of the 1st quarter.
The lead for the Raiders did not last long. The Giants put together an 11 play, 90 yard drive to take the lead with a TD. It was as demoralizing as it sounds as NY drove right down the field to make the score 14-10. The drive included an offsides for a first down on a 3rd down play inside the redzone and the touchdown came on a 3rd down play as well.
Taiwan Jones took the following kickoff for a 41 yard return where he flashed that world class speed. It was a big response after the Giants long drive and allowed Oakland to take some of the momentum back. Unfortunately a bullshit intentional grounding call took the momentum away along with 20 yards, apparently a receiver being in the area doesn't matter anymore.
Marquette King finally placed a punt perfectly after the stalled drive. It bounced inside the 5 where Chimdi Checkwa was able to keep it from being a touchback. It seemed for nothing though as the Giants managed to get a drive going but then Tracy Porter victimized the other Manning.
Eli forced an awful pass that Porter picked off and returned for a touchdown stealing the lead back for Oakland. The touchdown made the score 17-14 Raiders. After the Giants inexplicably decided not to try for at least a field goal to end the half that would be the score at halftime.
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