Raiders: Receiver Amari Cooper, left, has a big day as Oakland holds on to beat Cleveland 27-20.
Offense keeps rolling in Oakland’s 2nd win in row
CLEVELAND — We now are chalking up the Week 1 blowout loss to overconfidence. The Raiders were so positive that they were turning things around with their young players and new coaching staff that they weren’t mentally locked in.
That has to be it, now that they’re standing here at 2-1 with the offense humming. The Raiders dominated the Browns for three quarters, before holding off Cleveland for a 27-20 win at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday.
The defense gave up 17 points in the final 19 minutes, and the Browns were driving for the tie. But then, with 38 seconds left and Travis Benjamin seemingly open on the sideline, Raiders safety Charles Woodson grabbed the interception at the 12-yard line.
“C-Wood put on the cape and saved us,” defensive end Khalil Mack said. Benjamin had gotten past cornerback
David Amerson and Woodson was keeping an eye on tight end Gary Barnidge in the middle. He definitely wasn’t trying to bait quarterback Josh McCown into making the throw.
“He was baiting me,” Woodson said. “But when he threw it, I knew I could get there. No question.”
It helped that McCown — who got the start ahead of Johnny Manziel — threw it late and without enough gusto.
“I was trying to hold Charles with my eyes and I got him where I wanted to,” McCown said. “I just didn’t put enough on the ball.”
The Raiders snapped an 11-game road losing streak, which most players deemed trivial since first-year head coach Jack Del Rio kept preaching to them that this was this team’s first road game.
Woodson wasn’t having any of that.
“It was hanging over the whole organization’s head,” Woodson said of the losing streak. “You’ve gotta win these type of games to make the change you want to make.”
The Raiders have won these types of games two weeks in a row, for their first winning streak — and appearance over the .500 mark — in four years. That last-minute drama makes it that much sweeter.
“It says a lot about us,” Del Rio said. “We’re aware in this league that it’s going to be tight at the end, and it’s teams that make plays at the end that win.”
It didn’t look like it was going to be tight, as Oakland’s offense was in control most of the day, using receiver Amari Cooper’s flash and dash (eight catches for 134 yards) to set up Latavius Murray’s ground and pound. Murray had 26 carries for 139 yards and a touchdown.
Derek Carr finished 20for-32 for 314 yards and had touchdown passes to Andre Holmes and Seth Roberts in the first half. The one to Roberts, which put Oakland up 17-3, was especially pretty as Carr threw the 13-yard pass before Roberts had created separation in the corner of the end zone.
“I know we are drastically better and we’re doing great things,” Carr said, but “there is still so much out there that we leave on the field.”
The Raiders went up 27-10 a half-minute into the fourth quarter on Murray’s 6-yard run, but McCown was starting to find the holes in Oakland’s defense. The Raiders did get a lot of pressure on him — finishing with five sacks after getting none the first two games — but allowed an opposing tight end (Barnidge) to set a career high in yards for the third straight game.
McCown hit Benjamin with a 4-yard touchdown pass to make it 27-20 with 6:28 left. The Raiders’ offense helped Cleveland with a quick three-andout, but Benjamin, the AFC’s top special teams player last week, muffed the punt with 4:01 remaining. After he had called for a fair catch.
That should have done it, but the Raiders took only 1:35 off the clock with another bad offensive series. Luckily for them, Taiwan Jones made a nice play on the punt to down the ball at the 2 with 2:26 left.
Oakland’s defense then took “bend but don’t break” as far back as one can take it.
“This is what Coach Del Rio has been talking about all offseason,” Woodson said. “We need to change the culture of football here. You guys know the last couple of years, we don’t win these games.
“The last few weeks to pull out two tough games is really huge for this team.”