1st 4th-quarter comeback of season had a familiar feel

As running back Jalen Richard stood at his locker Thursday night discussing the Raiders’ 31-30 win over the Chiefs, receiver Michael Crabtree spoke up over a group of assembled reporters.

“You said, ‘Believe,’ ” Crabtree told Richard. “You said we were going to win this game. ‘Believe,’ that’s what you told me on the sideline.” Richard nodded. “It was like at the (five)minute mark,” Richard said. “We had a quick three-andout. And I still was walking up and down the sideline telling everybody, ‘Man, we’re going to win this game.’ This is stuff we done did all last year. Like, if you look at the tape last year, we did this.”

Last season’s Raiders thrived on late drama, leading the league with seven comeback wins in the fourth quarter. Their first such win of 2017 might have saved their season.

After the failed drive referenced by Richard, the Raiders’ defense forced their own three-and-out and Derek Carr led the game-winning, 85-yard touchdown drive over the final 2:25 — plus two plays in stoppage time. Carr’s 2-yard touchdown pass to Crabtree with the clock at zero tied the score and Giorgio Tavecchio converted the extra point, preventing a potential fifth consecutive loss.

It was the 12th fourth-quarter comeback win for Carr since the start of 2015, most among NFL quarterbacks. He said afterward Thursday’s final drive had the “same feel.”

“We’ve done this a couple of times together,” Carr said. “So when we took the field that last time, I looked at (center Rodney Hudson) and said, ‘All right, let’s go.’ I looked at my wideouts and I didn’t have to say anything. They said, ‘We got you, just throw it up.’ ”

Carr targeted seven receivers on the drive, finding Amari Cooper early for gains of 15 and 39 yards. The latter, on 2nd-and-20, moved the Raiders to the Chiefs’ 41 and gave Cooper a career-high 210 receiving yards.

“He just wanted to make a play,” Cooper said of Carr. “He kept saying in the huddle, ‘I’m throwing the ball to somebody. Just make a play.’ ”

Tight end Jared Cook made two — a 13-yard catch over the middle on 4th-and-11 and a 28-yard reception on a ball Carr threw into a group of two Raiders and three Chiefs. That play, which eventually put the Raiders at the 1-yard line, began a sequence of two nullified touchdowns and two defensive holding penalties before Crabtree’s game-tying score.

“At that moment, you just have to find a one-on-one with the coverages that they’re playing and give somebody a chance,” Carr said. “There’s nothing technical about it.”

Cook said the wild finish “should help propel us forward into our future games — to know how this feels and know that we have to keep fighting, no matter what.”

Averaging just over 13 points in their four consecutive losses, the Raiders seemed to loosen the reins on their offense. Carr had attempted just 10 passes of 20plus yards in the first six weeks, according to Pro Foot- ball Focus. He attempted that many against Kansas City while throwing for 417 yards and three touchdowns.

Oakland used play-action on nine dropbacks compared with 12 total over the first six weeks, per PFF. And they moved Cooper around at the line of scrimmage, with Carr targeting him 11 times out of the slot for six catches, 95 yards and a touchdown.

“I’m glad to get things going,” left tackle Donald Penn said. “I’ve been going out there trying to be too perfect. I told (coaches) today I was going to go out there and let it rip. I told some other guys to go out there and let it rip. This offense was trying to be too perfect.”

The Raiders were far from perfect Thursday. Several of Carr’s passes missed by a wide margin, the defense allowed its share of big plays, and running back Marshawn Lynch was ejected in the second quarter. But they secured a much-needed win in the final minutes, by a familiar formula.

“We’ve got so many explosive athletes on our offense, but in the last four games that we lost we were just so out of whack,” Richard said.

“Today, if we go back and look at the film — I don’t know how many mental errors we had, but I’m sure we didn’t have too many. Guys were doing their thing, playing hard. We believed the whole game.”