Oakland 37, Baltimore 33
When: 4:05 PM ET, Sunday, September 20, 2015
Where: O.co Coliseum, Oakland, California
Temperature:
80°
Head Official:
Peter Morelli
Attendance:
53500
By The Sports Xchange
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Trailing the Baltimore Ravens by three points with just over two minutes to play Sunday, the Oakland Raiders had the ball at their 20-yard line at the O.co Coliseum.
Coming off a one-sided loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Raiders appeared headed for an 0-2 start to the season, but quarterback Derek Carr said that when he stepped into the huddle, he knew they were going to score.
"There was a great look on everyone's face," Carr said. "It was just a confidence, man, 'We're just at practice' (look). We did this. We practiced against this. We practiced against these looks. It was just a confident look in everyone in that huddle, and I just said, 'Hey man, I better not screw it up. These guys are ready to go.'"
As it turned out, Carr was right. He threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Seth Roberts with 26 seconds to play, lifting the Raiders to a 37-33 victory against the Ravens on Sunday at the O.co Coliseum.
Carr marched the Raiders 80 yards on nine plays in 1:44 for their game-winning touchdown, giving coach Jack Del Rio his first victory with Oakland.
"It was special," Del Rio, a Bay Area native, said of the victory. "I had to focus on taking my mind elsewhere so I didn't get all choked up."
Carr, who left last week's game against the Bengals with an injury to his right thumb, threw for a career-high 351 yards and three touchdowns with one interception. He completed 30 of 46 passes and had his second career fourth-quarter, game-winning drive.
"He's a special guy," Oakland safety Charles Woodson said. "You saw that with the last drive today."
Raiders rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper had seven catches for 109 yards and his first NFL touchdown. Wide receiver Michael Crabtree caught nine passes for 111 yards and a TD.
Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco completed 32 of 45 passes for 384 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Baltimore wide receiver Steve Smith Sr. caught 10 passes for 150 yards, and tight end Crockett Gillmore had five catches for 88 yards and two touchdowns.
Despite all that offense, the Ravens fell to 0-2.
"Very disappointing," Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. "We're going to just have to regroup and improve as a football team.
"They had us off-balance the whole game. They ran it on us when they spread us out. Tightened it up a little bit, they threw those screens out there and got yards and made us miss tackles."
The Ravens took their first lead of the game when kicker Justin Tucker hit a 31-yard field goal, making it 33-30 with 2:10 left.
Carr quickly marched the Raiders to midfield, and a roughing-the-passer penalty on defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan gave Oakland a first down at Baltimore's 35.
Ravens strong safety Will Hill III intercepted Carr's pass on second-and-10 from the 17, but he was flagged for holding, negating the pick.
One play later, Carr hit a wide-open Roberts in the end zone, and the receiver made his only catch of the game and first game-winning catch since junior college, by his count.
Roberts dropped a few passes against Cincinnati, but he didn't lose his confidence.
"You know you're not going to catch everything, but it's about you coming back," Roberts said. "I felt like I came back strong."
The Ravens' defense played without outside linebacker Terrell Suggs, who sustained a season-ending Achilles injury in Week 1 against the Denver Broncos. Elvis Dumervil replaced Suggs, who has a franchise-record 106 1/2 sacks, in the starting lineup.
Carr was sacked just one time, by cornerback Jimmy Smith.
"You can't replace a Hall of Fame caliber player," Ravens defensive end Chris Canty said. "We understood the challenge that was ahead of us. We understood that we had to find guys and guys had to step up. Quite frankly, we took a step backwards."
The Raiders broke a 20-20 halftime tie on kicker Sebastian Janikowski's 48-yard field goal with 8:44 left in the third quarter. Then, after forcing a punt, Oakland marched 84 yards on nine plays for a touchdown, Carr hitting Crabtree for 29 yards for the score.
The Raiders fooled the Ravens on back-to-back plays to cap that TD drive. On first-and-10 from the Oakland 47, Carr faked a handoff to running back Latavius Murray, kept the ball, rolled left and raced 24 yards untouched to the Baltimore 29.
One play later, Carr rolled left and threw back all the way to his right, hitting a wide-open Crabtree for the score.
The Ravens cut Oakland's lead to 30-23 on Tucker's 37-yard field goal with 13:37 to play. They pulled even on running back Lorenzo Taliaferro's 7-yard burst, capping an 11-play, 93-yard touchdown drive with 7:03 remaining.
Flacco hit wide receiver Kamar Aiken for 38 yards on the drive, giving Baltimore a first down at Oakland's 48. From there, the Ravens slowly worked their way toward the tying score, taking what Oakland gave them.
The Ravens quickly got the ball back when Hill intercepted an underthrown Carr pass and returned it 25 yards to the Raiders' 37, setting up Tucker's fourth field goal of the day.
NOTES: Raiders FS Charles Woodson, who sustained a dislocated shoulder last week against Cincinnati, started against Baltimore and made four tackles. ... OLB Jason Babin, who signed with Baltimore on Tuesday, was inactive. ... Ravens LT Eugene Moore (concussion) was inactive, and James Hurst started in his place. ... Raiders CB D.J. Hayden left the game late in the third quarter with an undisclosed injury but returned in the fourth quarter.
Top Game Performances
Team Stats Summary
|
Yards |
Scoring |
Defense |
Team |
Tot |
Rus |
Pas |
TD |
FG |
INT |
Sck |
FF |
Baltimore
|
493 |
109 |
384 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
1.0 |
0 |
Oakland
|
448 |
97 |
351 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
0.0 |
1 |
Upcoming Games
-
Oakland will play their next game on the road against Cleveland. The Raiders have a W/L % of .000 after a win and .500 after a loss.
-
Baltimore will play their next game at home against Cincinnati. The Ravens have a W/L % of .000 after a win and .000 after a loss.