Oakland vs Arizona recap, Final Score 23-21: Raiders win nail biter in Arizona with last second field goal

The Oakland Raiders kicked off to the Arizona Cardinals to start the game but the Cardinals didn’t hold onto the ball long. Within the first minute their rookie QB Josh Rosen’s pass was intercepted by CB Gareon Conley who returned it 29 yards to the Arizona 33. It took just 3 plays before they scored a touchdown to Jared Cook who completely shook his defender with a double move on the 23 yard TD reception. The touchdown made the score 7-0 Raiders, and was their first TD since Week 8.

Unfortunately the Raiders defense couldn’t come up with a stop the next time around. The Cardinals got a nice return on the kickoff to their own 41 and then put together a 9 play, 59 yard drive that ended in the end zone to tie the game at 7. They got their touchdown on an 18 yard pass to future hall of famer Larry Fitzgerald.

Both teams traded off 3 and outs after the initial flurry of action, but it was Arizona who broke the impasse. They only took 3 plays to do it too thanks to rookie receiver Christian Kirk. The young receiver broke one tackle, turned on the burners and ran past everyone for a 59 yard touchdown. The score made it 14-7 with 14 unanswered points after the Raiders scored first.

Oakland’s offense responded to the adversity the same way they have all season, by completely sucking again with their 3rd straight 3 and out. However, after that the defense made another big play with their 2nd interception of the game. This one by a diving Karl Joseph on a deflected pass that gave the Raiders the ball back at the 50. The turnover jump started the Oakland offense again as they relied on the legs of their running game with 5 straight runs for 39 yards to begin the drive. They then passed twice with the 2nd being a 5 yard touchdown pass to Brandon Lafell to tie the game at 14.

Arizona started of their drive with a 10 yard holding penalty followed by a 13 yard loss from a Maurice Hurst sack. They couldn’t get out of that giant hole so they punted quickly giving Oakland the ball back near midfield again. They couldn’t capitalize though, they went 3 and out, wasting their golden opportunity.

Neither team did anything in the final 4 possessions of the first half, and the Raiders got the ball first to begin the 2nd half. They started off with a bang with a 24 yard run by Jalen Richard on the first play and followed it up with a 16 yard catch and run on the 3rd play of the half. The offense stalled after that but they did get close enough for a field goal attempt. Daniel Carlson hit the 49 yard field goal with plenty of room to spare to make the score 17-14 Raiders.

The Raiders defense stopped the Cardinals so Oakland got the ball back quickly and with the momentum. They got all the way down to the 1 yard line but they got stuffed from there and settled for a field goal. The kick made it 20-14 Raiders but it was a costly drive for Oakland with injuries to WR Brandon Lafell on a key 3rd down catch on the drive and LT Kolton Miller going down with an injury near the goal line.

Again the Raiders defense came up with a big 3 and out though and got their offense the ball back right away. The 2nd half has featured a lot of that with Oakland dominating the time of possession. They held the ball for nearly 6 minutes on this drive even though the drive ended in a punt on 4th and 1 from the Arizona 38. The call was questionable already, but made worse when the ball went in the end zone for a touchback.

Dominating the clock is great and all but it’s only resulted in a 6 point lead for the Raiders. That lead was very nearly erased on one huge play from Arizona with RB David Johnson finally breaking free and busting out a 53 yard run but Karl Joseph saved the touchdown by knocking Johnson out at the Raiders 17. It didn’t matter though because Arizona did erase that 6 point lead anyway with a Larry Fitzgerald touchdown catch a few plays later. Just like that the Cardinals took the lead 21-20 with 5:02 left in the 4th quarter.

Oakland needed a big response, instead they went 3 and out and punted back to Arizona with 3:49 left the game and 2 timeouts. The Cardinals couldn’t close it out though and threw an incomplete pass on 3rd down so Oakland’s offense got the ball back with 3:05 on the clock.

Oh yeah, and they had to start from their own 2 yard line after a 58 yard punt. Backed up against their own end zone the Raiders offense couldn’t get anything going, they had 3 straight incompletions and punted. Arizona just needed to get a first down to run out the clock, but they couldn’t do it (thanks to a holding calling call negating a 57 yard David Johnson touchdown run) and punted the ball back to Oakland at the 2 minute warning.

Now it was Oakland’s real last chance after they somehow survived 2 chances for Arizona to close out the game with their drive starting from the 20 with 1:53 left. Down by just 1 point Oakland only needed a field goal for the last second win. After getting a first down from Jared Cook they struck deep with a 32 yard reception from rookie Marcell Ateman. They then got a huge Seth Roberts catch and run on 3rd down. Oakland clocked the ball and sent their kicker Daniel Carlson out for the game winner. He kicked the 35 yarder good to win 23-21.