Raiders vs Seahawks preseason week four recap: Defense shows up early but Raiders drop finale 23-21

Each of these two teams had different ideas for how they wanted to use their personnel in this one. The Seahawks sent their first teamers out both on offense and defense, while the Raiders didn’t send a single first teamer on offense, and just rookies Karl Joseph and Jihad Ward were among the projected starters on defense.

That decision didn’t give the Seahawks an advantage. Both teams began the game doing nothing on offense, with all the plays being made on the defensive side of the ball.

Matt McGloin played just the first quarter before Connor Cook took over with the first play of the second quarter. Neither quarterback was doing much and the offense stalled in the first half.

The best player on the field early on was Denico Autry who had a sack, three tackles for loss, and a pass batted down at the line.

The first score of the game was also made on the defensive side of the ball. It came with 4:44 left in the first half when James Cowser rushed in and Trevone Boykin was called for intentional grounding in his own end zone for the safety. The Raiders took the 2-0 lead. That’s where the score would stay heading into the half.

More fine defensive play by the Raiders reserves in the third quarter, followed by a nifty 23-yard return by DeAndre Washington to put the Raiders in Seahawks territory. George Atkinson got wide open on a sure-touchdown and dropped it and the Raiders would end up settling for a short field goal to go up 5-0.

A big 60-yard return by the Seahawks had their drive starting in scoring position. A big stop by Darius Latham – who was having a hell of a game in his own rite – held the Seahawks to a field goal to pull it to 5-3.

Some field position battling, ended up putting the Raiders in position for to add another field goal from 45 yards out to take an 8-3 lead.

There was some yakkety sax in the fourth quarter beginning with George Aktinson III taking a short pass and then fumbling it. The Seahawks would take over and then have a botched snap recovered by Raiders defensive tackle, Derrick Lott. Then Connor Cook threw the ball right into the arms of former Raiders defensive end Ryan Robinson who returned it for a touchdown to take the lead. The Seahawks went for two and failed to keep the score at 9-8.

This makes the second week in a row the Raiders have had a former player score a defensive touchdown. Last week it was former seventh round pick David Bass who picked up a Jalen Richard fumble and returned it for a touchdown.

That was your random stat of the game. Back to your regularly scheduled barn burner.

The Raiders made it interesting late when Connor Cook rolled right and escaped pressure to break left where he had Jaydon Mickens behind his defender. Mickens laid out to make a fantastic diving catch for a 33-yard gain.

George Atkinson III would finish it off with a run up the middle for the Raiders first touchdown of the game. They went for two but a Connor Cook scramble was stopped short to keep the score at 16-14.

But wait, there’s more.

With just over two minutes left, the Seahawks would get the ball and in on the second play, running back Troymaine Pope would go up the middle for 33 yards. A horsecollar tackle by Dewey McDonald would tack on a few more yards and put the Seahawks in first and goal at the 4-yard line. They would score a touchdown in two plays to go up 23-14 with just over a minute remaining.

AND WE’RE STILL NOT DONE.

George Atkinson III took the kickoff and returned it 81 yards for the touchdown. With the failed two-point conversion earlier, all the Raiders could do was kick the extra point now to get within two, down 23-21.

Preseason be damned, the Raiders went for the onsides kick. But it was batted out of bounds. The Seahawks kneeled out the clock (finally) and that ended it.

Next stop: New Orleans for the season opener on September 11.