There was a lot of crazy stuff that happened in Sunday’s game in Oakland. Though not a lot to be excited about. All you can really say is the Raiders pulled out a win over a team they were supposed to beat.
With Paxton Lynch at quarterback for the Broncos, the Raiders went up 21-0. When Trevor Siemian entered the game, that lead was cut to one score and required the Raiders to make a play at the end to secure the 21-14 win.
Ballers
NaVorro Bowman
It finally happened. The Raiders recorded an interception. As you might expect, it wasn’t a conventional one. To begin the second quarter, with the game still scoreless, the Broncos had managed to set themselves up in first and goal at the one yard line. A run stop at the line brought up second down. This time the Broncos went to the air, with Lynch rolling out left and found tight end Virgil Green right along the back of the end zone with Bowman trailing. Lynch threw for Green, Bowman closed on it to hit Green as the ball arrived and knock the ball away. The ball bounced off Reggie Nelson and back to Bowman, who was on his back on the turf. The ball landed in his arms for the interception.
Not only did that keep the Broncos from scoring, the Raiders took the ball and drove for a touchdown of their own – a 14-point swing.
That pick not only ended the Raiders 10-game streak without an interception to start this season, it was the biggest play of the game. It wasn’t Bowman’s only play, though.
Bowman had run stops on each of the Broncos’ first four possessions and made the stop on a QB scramble short of the first down on the third one. At that point they had just one first down. He once again finished as the team’s leading tackler (7).
Marshawn Lynch
If you are looking at his yards per carry (2.6), you aren’t paying attention. First of all, the Broncos have the best run defense in the league, allowing just 3.2 yards per carry. He put up 67 yards on the ground which is a total only two backs have reached on them this season. He added 44 yards through the air for 111 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown.
On the Raiders’ first scoring drive, he caught a dump pass ten yards out, then fought through tackles for another ten yards and was visually upset that the officials blew the whistle while he was still fighting for yards.
The second scoring drive, he had a 4-yard run on second and four, a 5-yard run and a 7-yard run that set the Raiders up at the 4-yard-line. On third and goal from the one, he got in the end zone for the score to give the Raiders a 14-0 Raiders lead.
Up 21-0 in the fourth quarter, Marshawn caught a pass on third and 12 and took it for 26 yards. Two more runs for ten yards and a first down put the Raiders in range of a short field goal. It would make it a three-score game which would ice the game with under six minutes remaining. But the field goal was missed from 35 yards out. They stuck with him and he helped grind out a win.
Denico Autry, Bruce Irvin
After the Raiders finally got on the board to go up 7-0 early in the second quarter, Autry and Irvin went to work trying to keep that lead. Autry broke up the middle for a sack on third and 5 for a loss of 9. The next series, it was Irvin getting the sack on third and ten for another three-and-out to send the Raiders into the half up 14-0.
On the Broncos’ first drive of the third quarter, both of them got a sack. First Irvin had a tackle for loss. Two plays later he got a strip sack. Lynch picked it up and tried to run, but Autry was there to stop him for a loss. Two plays later, Autry put an end to it with his second sack for an 8-yard loss. The Raiders were up 21-0 by the time they took the field again.
Cordarrelle Patterson
With Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper both lost – Crabtree to ejection and Cooper to injury – Patterson and Holton stepped up.
Two plays after Cooper left with injury, Derek Carr threw for Patterson in the end zone, drawing a pass interference to put the Raiders in first and goal at the one-yard-line. They scored their second TD on the next play.
Patterson’s first big play came on special teams. When Marquette King launched a punt from the 42-yard-line and Patterson raced downfield to down the ball at the 2-yard-line. Patterson’s first catch went for 9 yards on first and ten and set the table for Johnny Holton to catch a 47-yard pass. That set up the Raiders’ third touchdown.
His biggest catch he broke three tackles and took it for 54 yards. It sealed the win and allowed the Raiders to kneel out the clock. Patterson finished with a team-leading 73 yards on three catches.
Marquette King
Four of his six punts in the game were stopped inside the 20-yard-line. One of the other two was his first punt which went for 56 yards to the 13-yard-line and was returned to the 21. He later had a 38-yard punt fair caught at the 8, a 40-yard punt downed at the 2, a 51-yard punt fair caught at the 6, and a 43-yard punt fair caught at the 7. It was hard enough for the Broncos to move the ball without King pinning them in the shadow of their own goal line the whole game.
Derek Carr
He didn’t have as great a day as the numbers suggest. His 47-yard pass to Holton should have been a touchdown and then there was the pass over the middle that was off target and got Amari Cooper knocked unconscious. That one especially is hard to overlook, so it’s important we don’t.
However, even with those mistakes considered, Carr put the Raiders in position to win. A 12-yard laser to Lee Smith set up the first touchdown, which was a perfectly thrown pass to Coop in the end zone from 9 yards out. That got things started. And it was Carr’s high-arching pass under pressure to Cordarrelle Patterson that got the Raiders the first down they needed to end it.
Honorable Mention
Johnny Holton – Holton’s 47-yard catch set up the team’s third touchdown. He was wide open on the play and it should have been a touchdown, but for having to slow up for it.
Kelechi Osemele -- On the Raiders’ second scoring drive, he laid a block on a 9-yard run by DeAndre Washington and finished it off by plowing the way for Marshawn Lynch to score on third and goal from the one. He had blocks on three other Lynch chunk runs as well.
Reggie Nelson – Was tied for second on the team with 6 combined tackles (5 solo). Several of those tackles were some nice hits too. He also kept from making Paxton Lynch look like a superstar.
Cory James – He made the run stuff tackle for no gain on first and goal that kept the Broncos from scoring. Paxton Lynch to threw the interception in the end zone on the next play.
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