‘A switch turned on’ after win vs. Chiefs
It seemed, at the time, as if the Raiders’ season could be teetering on the brink.
Already in a four-game losing streak, the Raiders trailed the first-place Kansas City Chiefs 30-24 late in the fourth quarter in Week 7. Oakland stood in danger of falling to 2-5 as its offense came onto the field to start a drive from its 15-yard line with 2:25 left in the game. Well, 2:25 and then some. An 11-play, 85-yard drive — on which the Raiders twice snapped the ball with no time remaining on the clock — ended with quarterback Derek Carr finding receiver Michael Crabtree in the near corner of the end zone for a touchdown. An extra point sealed Oakland’s 31-30 win.
“I feel like if we all looked
back at that moment,” Carr said this week, “it was where a switch turned on for us.”
Sunday’s rematch finds the Raiders and Chiefs in much different places than in Week 7. As the Chiefs, who started the season 5-0, have lost six of their past seven games, the Raiders have won four of six, creeping into a three-way tie atop the AFC West that includes the Chargers.
Though that Thursday night game at the Coliseum marked an early point in Kansas City’s downturn, head coach Andy Reid this week dismissed the idea that it had any lasting impact on his players.
“Every game you have your hurdles you have to overcome,” he said on a conference call. “That was a hurdle and we didn’t overcome it.”
To Carr, though, the win resonated for the Raiders.
“That was a good moment for this team to kind of catapult us forward and get on a run,” he said.
Carr completed 6 of 11 passes on the final drive, including a 13-yarder to tight end Jared Cook on 4th-and-11 and a 28-yard pass into triple coverage that Cook corraled for what appeared to be the game-tying touchdown with seven seconds left.
On review, though, Cook was ruled down at the 1-yard line, setting up a frenzied conclusion. A touchdown pass from Carr to Crabtree was nullified by offensive pass interference, moving the ball back to the 10-yard line with three seconds left. Carr then threw a pass over the middle for Cook that fell incomplete as time expired.
Kansas City safety Ron Parker was called for holding, moving the ball to the 5. With the clock reading zeroes, Carr threw another incomplete pass, intended for Cordarrelle Patterson, that was rendered moot by another holding penalty on Kansas City.
On a second untimed down, Carr rolled to his left and found Crabtree, who secured the ball as he went to the ground just past the goal line. Crabtree flung the ball into the air as Carr hugged him.
“I’ve never seen anything, let alone been a part of something, like that,” Carr said Wednesday.
“All of that sequence was just so weird. It got to a moment before that last play like, ‘This has to be it.’ We were like, ‘We better make this one count.’ ”
Amari Cooper had a career game (11 catches, 210 yards) that night, but Carr targeted seven receivers on the final drive. He might need to spread the ball around again Sunday as the Raiders might be without Cooper, who has been sidelined since suffering a concussion and ankle injury on the same play Nov. 26 against the Broncos.
Cooper cleared concussion protocol Wednesday, but he has not practiced this week because of the ankle.
The Raiders, though, will have Crabtree, who returns this week from suspension, along with a group of passcatchers who totaled 282 receiving yards against the Giants with their top two threats out. Carr said Crabtree’s return is “going to be huge.”
“Obviously, it’s no secret, I love throwing him the ball,” Carr said. “I love Crab, and I think a lot of people know that. So being able to get him back, it definitely helps our team.”