Patterson delivers KO without clenching fists
OAKLAND >> Like a certain Raiders teammate, Cordarrelle Patterson also wears a thick and glimmering gold necklace on game day.
I asked him if an opponent ever tried to yank his chain.
“No, I don’t beef on the football field,” Patterson said with a laugh. “I love my money too much to go start a fight and get fined and get kicked out. I really don’t have time for all that. I just go out there and just try to make friends with everybody.”
His buddy Michael Crabtree was at the center of a donnybrook Sunday when Denver Broncos cornerback (and parttime jewelry thief) Aqib Talib ripped the gold chain off Crabtree’s neck as part of an apparent annual tradition.
Crabtree and Talib were ejected for throwing haymakers.
But Patterson delivered the knockout blow.
His 54-yard catch on the Raiders’ preposterously gutsy play call with 2:24 left in the game served as the TKO in a 21-14 victory at the Oakland Coliseum.
Coach Jack Del Rio and offensive coordinator Todd Downing take their knocks for being overly conservative. But the Raiders (5-6) remain alive in the playoff chase thanks in large part to the NFL equivalent of a no-look pass.
Nursing a touchdown lead
against a Broncos team with no timeouts, the Raiders could have run the ball one more time from their 15-yard-line and punted at the 2-minute warning.
Instead, they saw Denver line up in a Cover-0 — no defensive backs deep. The Broncos apparently figured the Raiders wouldn’t dare risk throwing the ball at crunch time without Crabtree or Amari Cooper (concussion) on the field.
“I don’t know why
they would do that,” Patterson said later, shaking his head. “I guess because they thought we were down two receivers or something like that. Maybe they thought they could get pressure on Derek.”
Denver did get pressure, but Derek Carr went for broke. He chucked a pretty rainbow of a pass toward the middle of the field and hoped that Patterson just remembered how they’d done it in practice.
Patterson, having beaten cornerback Brendan Langley by a step, could seal the victory simply by catching one of the
softest passes Carr has ever thrown.
What was Patterson thinking as the ball floated through the crisp November air?
“If I catch it,” he replied, “Mr. Reggie (McKenzie) might have to pay me some money.”
Patterson laughed again.
“The ball got caught in the lights a little bit,” he continued. “I just put my hands up, and God dropped it right in my hands. I have to thank the man above.”
Patterson caught the ball 20 yards down field, spun out of a tackle, and didn’t stop spinning until
he was at the Denver 31. The only item left on Oakland’s to-do list after that was for Carr to take three kneel downs and thank his coaches for having the guts to let him throw.
“Any time your coaches believe in what our offense can do, you get excited as a player,” the quarterback said. “When they believe in you and say, ‘Here you go.’ ... That’s always an exciting thing.”
Carr added: “That’s not everybody’s call against Cover-0. Most people say, ‘Hey, let’s throw it short. Let them tackle you. We’ll punt it and stop them.’ But the coaches trusted us to do it and gave us that
confidence.”
Patterson, signed as a free agent in March with an eye toward his special teams skills, wound up with a surprise starring role Sunday. Crabtree was ejected early in the first quarter and Cooper sustained a concussion in the second.
After that, the Raiders’ “other” receivers — Patterson, Johnny Holton and Seth Roberts, aka the guys who aren’t on your fantasy team — had a meeting on the sideline.
“We sat down on the bench and said, ‘Hey, we’re all we’ve got, and that’s going to have to do,’” Patterson said.
Holton also had a big catch, a 47-yarder on third-and-10 in the third quarter. Roberts caught a 20-yarder on third-and-15 in the first.
But it was Patterson who stole the show (even if nobody stole his necklace). He celebrated the Raiders’ longest play of the day with a smile that lit up an otherwise gloomy and overcast day.
“That’s just what I do. I bring the joy to the team,” he said. “I’m like Draymond Green on the Warriors. He brings the excitement, having fun. I’m just blessed to have an opportunity to make that catch and get the win.”