Washington rallies for 17-15 win over Raiders, its fourth straight
LAS VEGAS » Taylor Heinicke threw two touchdown passes and set up new kicker Brian Johnson’s game-winning 48-yard field goal with 37 seconds remaining to lead Washington to its fourth straight win, 17-15 over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday.
Heinicke threw a 7-yard TD pass to Logan Thomas on the opening drive and a 4-yarder to Antonio Gibson early in the fourth quarter after extending the drive with a key third-down scramble.
But Washington (6-6) then allowed the Raiders (6-6) to score on successive drives to take a 15-14 lead on Daniel Carlson’s 37-yard field goal that was set up by Nate Hobbs’ interception of Heinicke.
But Heinicke responded and drove Washington down the field to set up the kick by Johnson. who was signed earlier this week after Joey Slye went down with an injury.
Coordinator Jack Del Rio’s defense then sealed it to give him the win in his first game against the Raiders since being fired by the team following the 2017 season.
The game was sealed when Derek Carr’s desperation heave from his 43 fell incomplete, short of the goal line.
The Raiders were unable to build on a Thanksgiving overtime win at Dallas and lost for the fourth time in five games as the offense has stalled after a strong start to the season.
They were held to just two field goals in the first three quarters as Carr seemed to miss injured tight end Darren Waller and couldn’t connect on the big plays with DeSean Jackson that helped fuel last week’s win.
Las Vegas finally got into the end zone when Josh Jacobs capped a 75-yard drive aided by three defensive penalties with a 1-yard run.
Carr missed Bryan Edwards in the back of the end zone on the 2-point try to keep Washington ahead 14-12.
SLOW START
The Raiders punted on their first three drives before getting a 52-yard field goal from Carlson in the closing seconds of the first half to cut the deficit to 7-3. It was the fifth time this season Las Vegas failed to score a touchdown in the first half of a game.
Carr struggled to push the ball downfield with his first 18 passes traveling a combined 36 yards downfield, according to NFL NextGen stats.