Oakland Raiders Lose Fourth Straight; Fall to Cincinnati Bengals 34-10

Nov 25, 2012; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Oakland Raiders defensive tackle Tommy Kelly (93) is taken away by police after fighting with the Cincinnati Bengals tackle Andrew Whitworth (not pictured) during the second half at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals defeated the Raiders 34-10. Mandatory Credit: Frank Victores-US PRESSWIRE

It was a sloppy game today in Cincinnati when the Oakland Raiders played the Bengals. Bad defense, sacks, ejections, dropped balls, you name it. But in the end, the Raiders lost the game 34-10 and drop to 3-8 on this dissapointing season.

The Cincinnati Bengals absolutely dominated the first half. BenJarvus Green-Ellis broke free for a huge run that appeared to be a touchdown, but upon further review, the call was reversed. Green-Ellis then punched it in for a 1-yard touchdown.

Rookie Mohamed Sanu had himself a great game, as he caught two touchdown passes, one of them being a beautiful one-handed grab on a goal line fade. He caught a total of five passes for 29 yards.

Mike Nugent also booted in a 55-yard field goal to end the half, and soon enough the first half was over, and the Raiders were down 24-0.

The Raiders played really poorly in the first half, but in the third quarter, they started to pick things up. Sebastian Janikowski drilled a 55-yard field goal of his own, and with two minutes left in the quarter, Carson Palmer threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Denarius Moore as he got hit. Just like that, the score was 24-10.

But as the fourth quarter rolled along, the game went downhill again for the Raiders. The first play that they ran resulted in a fumble, as Palmer dropped back and was hit hard. The Bengals would recover. Mike Nugent would then hit a 20-yard field goal to push the Bengals’ lead to 17.

And then, nearly halfway through the final quarter of action, Andy Dalton fired a pass to his wideout who caught the ball, but as he was coming down to the ground, was stripped by Joselio Hanson of the Raiders. Before the ball fell out of bounds, Hanson dove at the ball and tapped it in bounds, and Tyvon Branch recovered and ran it all the way back for a touchdown. However, because of an inadvertent whistle, the play was ruled dead and the Bengals still had the ball. Dennis Allen was furious and it was a frustrating sequence.

And then, just a few plays later, Andy Dalton took the snap and the officials blew their whistle, but the Raiders didn’t stop. Andy Dalton was thrown to the ground on what looked like a late hit and all of a sudden a brawl broke out. Pushing and shoving continued for several minutes and the officials finally got a hold on the situation. At the end of it all, Tommy Kelly and LaMarr Houston were both ejected, and Bengals OT Andrew Whitworth was thrown out as well.

After that the game was pretty dry, until Jermaine Gresham scored a 7-yard touchdown after giving Matt Giordano a deadly stiff arm. The game clock would slowly tick down, and the Raiders lost the game with a final score of 34-10.

The Raiders now stand at 3-8, and they’ll be looking forward to the 2013 NFL Draft. They are one of the worst teams in the league right now and they desperately need some young talent to help their roster.

Carson Palmer threw for 146 yards today and had a passer rating of 64.1, which were both season lows.

Next week the Raiders will host the Cleveland Browns, who are also one of the NFL’s worst teams. They stand at 3-8 as well. The game probably won’t be too exciting, but stay tuned with Golden Gate Sports for Raiders coverage until gametime.