Every week, the Raiders seem to set another mark that hadn’t been reached by the franchise in 15 years. That was back when they were in the midst of several successful seasons with Rich Gannon at the helm throwing to Hall of Fame wide receivers Jerry Rice and Tim Brown.
Now the team has Derek Carr throwing to arguably the best wide receiver duo in the league in Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree.
Monday night in Mexico City, Crabtree didn’t have a great night, but Cooper had the late go-ahead touchdown that sealed the win.
The Raiders won 27-20 to bring their record to 8-2, which is their best start to a season since 2001. Should they win next week against the Carolina Panthers, they would have their best record since 2000 when they started the season 10-2 and finished 12-4.
They also are in the midst of a four-game win streak, which is their longest since their 2002 Super Bowl season. Another win strung together, would be their most since 2001.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
What matters now is the Raiders hold the top seed in the playoff race, holding the tiebreaker over the Patriots, and control their own destiny to keep it.
Other superlatives
- We expected the Raiders running backs would have a great day on the ground. Well, they didn’t. But they made up for it in the receiving game with the trio of Latavius Murray, Jalen Richard, and Jamize Olawale collecting 11 receptions for 199 yards and 2 touchdowns in the game.
- On Derek Carr’s third touchdown of the game — a 35-yard pass to Amari Cooper with 4:51 left in the game — he surpassed 10,000 passing yards to become the 12th player in NFL history to do so in 42 games or less. Carr is just the eight Raider to eclipse 10,000 passing yards.
- Carr recorded three touchdowns to become just the third Raider with 20 passing touchdowns in three straight seasons, joining Rich Gannon and Daryle Lamonica, who are both tied for first with four consecutive seasons.
- Carr’s touchdown to Cooper marked his eighth game-winning drive in the fourth quarter/overtime since 2015, the second most in the NFL.
- With 10:57 left in the game, Jamize Olawale set a new career high, grabbing a 75-yard touchdown reception from Derek Carr to even the score at 20 apiece. Olawale’s touchdown reception was the longest by a Raiders running back since 1995.
- Olawale owns the two longest passing plays of the season for Raiders with tonight’s 75-yard touchdown reception and a 68-yard catch-and-run in Week 8 against the Buccaneers, his previous career long.
- Khalil Mack has now recorded a sack in five consecutive weeks when he took down Brock Osweiler on the final play of the first half for a 9-yard loss. Mack has 7.0 sacks in his last five games, the most in the league during that span. He has a total of 8.0 sacks on the season which is tied for 7th in the league.
- Bruce Irvin tied for the team lead with 10 combined tackles (nine solo), including two tackles for loss and one sack (his third of the season). His 10 tackles doubled his previous season high of five recorded on Oct. 16 against the Chiefs.
- With a punt of 51 yards in the first quarter and a 59-yarder in the second quarter, Marquette King extended his league-leading punts of 50-yards-or-more to 23.
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