Raiders at Colts recap, final score Oakland 31, Indianapolis 24: Erik Harris seals the deal with pick 6 to beat Colts

It’s Week 4 of the 2019 season, and the Oakland Raiders are taking on the Indianapolis Colts in Indy. Oakland started off with the ball first and they clearly wanted to make a concerted effort to quiet the criticisms for their offense because their opening drive was one of their best offensive possessions of the season.

Derek Carr and the Raiders offense put together a 10 play, 75 yard drive that took just under 6 minutes of play and it culminated in a glorious touchdown catch from rookie TE Foster Moreau. It was one of the best catches of the year so far in the NFL and it made the score 7-0 Raiders. Carr was excellent on the drive going 6 for 6 for 53 yards along with the 18 yard TD to Moreau.

Then things got even better very quickly. The Raiders defense came out strong with a 3 and out defensive stand that almost had a diving LaMarcus Joyner interception but he couldn’t quite hang on. It still gave the Raiders good field position by forcing the quick punt, Oakland took over at their own 40 yard line. It took just one play to add to their lead, and it came on the first touch ever for newly acquired receiver Trevor Davis who went 60 yards on a end around run for a touchdown. The run featured both Darren Waller and LT Kolton Miller clearing the way for Davis all the way down field, and it made the score 14-0 Oakland.

Unfortunately their magical start ended with a special teams penalty taking away great field position near midfield, followed by a Josh Jacobs fumble which the Colts recovered at the Oakland 22. To make matters worse it was former Chiefs LB Justin Houston of all people who recovered the fumble. The first play of the Colts drive was an 18 yard run, and then two plays later Brissett tossed an easy touchdown pass to TE Jack Doyle to cut the lead down to 14-7.

The mistake from Oakland could have derailed their momentum entirely, but instead the Raiders offense came right back with another strong drive. They scored another touchdown by way of Tyrell Williams on their 11 play, 76 yard drive. Shout out to Williams for his great start to his Raiders career with 4 straight games with a touchdown.

Indy was able to get a field goal on their next drive, but it could have been worse if not for a great goal line stand from the Raiders. The 26 yard kick made it 21-10 Raiders, but the big story from the drive was Vontaze Burfict getting ejected from the game for targeting with his helmet AND hitting TE Jack Doyle with a helmet to helmet hit. After that big momentum swing it was huge for the Raiders to hold the Colts to a field goal.

The next big action in the game came a couple of drives later when the Colts got the ball back and were driving deep into Raiders territory. It wasn’t looking too good for Oakland at that point but WR Parris Campbell fumbled the ball and Karl Joseph recovered it at the Oakland 15.

The turnover saved the Raiders from giving up points, but the Colts had another chance after that. Oakland’s defense came up with the stop just in time on that next drive, they forced a 57 yard field goal attempt that missed wide left. Oakland did nothing with their last chance of the half so it went into halftime with the Raiders leading 21-10.

Indianapolis started the 2nd half with the ball first but the Oakland defense forced a punt from them. The offense then proceeded to drive all the way down the field but they couldn’t punch it in from inside the 10. They did settle for a Daniel Carlson field goal after a drop in the endzone on 3rd down from Tyrell Williams. It wasn’t a good pass but Williams should have caught it, still at least the Raiders extended their lead to 24-10.

Oakland came up with a big stop and forced another Colts punt so that 24-10 lead for the Raiders was the score when the 3rd quarter ended. Oakland was not able to add to their lead on their next drive but they did manage a sustained drive that took over 5 important minutes off the clock before punting.

With the clock dwindling down the Colts kicked their offense into overdrive. They put together a really impressive drive that covered 90 yards in 14 plays, scoring a touchdown on a pass to Chester Rogers to cut the Oakland lead down to 24-17. The only good thing here is that they took almost 5 minutes to score on their long drive so now there is only 5:27 left in the 4th quarter after that drive.

That is still plenty of time for the Colts though so the Raiders absolutely needed a sustained drive. They started out with a false start which was a horrible way to start, but they followed that up with a huge 16 yard run to get the first down from Josh Jacobs. Then they followed it up with another horrible false start, which is pretty ridiculous. Not as absurd as the 3rd false start on the drive happening after Josh Jacobs got them to a 3rd and 5. They ran a TE screen on 3rd and 10 and only gained 3 so out came A.J. Cole and the punt unit after that.

The Colts took over at their own 15 with 2:28 left in the 4th quarter. Oakland’s offense couldn’t shut out the game so it was up to the defense, and Erik Harris was up to the challenge. He read the play perfectly and intercepted the Jacoby Brissett pass and returned it 30 yards for the pick 6. It was their first interception of the season and it couldn’t have been bigger. The defensive touchdown made the score 31-17 with 2:09 left in the game.

Indy would not go away though, they put together a very quick touchdown drive. Brissett got away from an all out blitz and hit the TE Eric Ebron for a 48 yard touchdown. That made the score 31-24 Raiders with 1:10 left.

Surprisingly the Colts didn’t even attempt an onside kick and kicked deep because they had 3 timeouts still. It was a questionable call for sure, but the Raiders still needed to get a first down. They got that from Josh Jacobs and were able to run the rest of the clock out. Raiders win, 31-24.