NaVorro Bowman:
Linebacker’s wild interception ends Oakland’s drought.
NaVorro Bowman was in the end zone, chaos all around him.
“I was in panic mode,” said Bowman.
The former 49ers linebacker ended up flat on his back. With the football on his stomach.
And thus ended the saga known as “Will The 2017 Raiders Ever Get an Interception?”
Prior to Sunday’s contest against the Broncos at the Coliseum, the Raiders already had gone the longest of any NFL team into a season without an interception — 10 games.
What in the name of Lester Hayes’ stickumy hands was going on?
To start the second quarter, an apparent Broncos touchdown was taken off the board, and the ball spotted at the 1. Denver’s first play was for no gain. On 2nd-and-1 the Raiders were expecting another run.
“I realized it was a pass so I used a guard to push out of there and find the guy that was open,” Bowman said. “I just dove to break it up and landed on my back and the ball was there.”
It was a pinball play. Bowman tipped the ball first, then it went off the intended receiver, tight end Virgil Green, then off Raiders safety Reggie Nelson and to Bowman on the ground.
“It was one of those crazy plays,” Bowman said. “But as coach says, ‘Just run to the ball and great things will happen.’ ”
The Raiders hope that the play will open the interception floodgates. They were tired of hearing about the interception drought.
“It was good to bring morale to the defense,” Bowman said. “It was great to knock that one down.”
The Raiders don’t want to break the record for fewest interceptions in a 16-game season (four by the winless Detroit Lions in 2008). They still could.
“It was a relief,” head coach Jack Del Rio said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. Even later in the game we still had both hands on a ball that ended up not only not being intercepted, but caught by the other team. I’ve never seen it as many times as we’ve seen it this year.
“Hopefully we’re getting all of that out of our system.”
If nothing else, the interception was proof that sometimes the coaching staff tells players the right thing. They’ve been telling players to run to the ball. To fly around.
“Guys ran to the ball, surrounded the ball and we came up with our first interception,” linebacker Bruce Irvin said. “Run to the ball, good things happen.”
The Raiders are still at the bottom of the league in interceptions. But at least they don’t have a zero in that column.