Ugly: Final Drive Defense
Just to hop on that previous point, it was Oakland’s defense on that final drive that sealed their fate, and sent them to another loss to start the year.
Had the defense just stepped up and made a couple of plays, the Raiders would be sitting at 1-1 right now, and a lot of the frantic hand-wringing, doomsday talk would have been averted. Oh, there would still be plenty of grumbling, don’t misunderstand, but 1-1 is a whole lot more palatable than 0-2 – especially when that one loss was to a team nobody thought you could beat anyway.
The Raiders had a chance to win that game. It came down to the final drive. Denver made the plays, and Oakland didn’t. And it cost them dearly.
Clinging to a one point, 20-19 lead, the Broncos took over – after forcing Carr and the offense to punt the ball away. Again. With just under two minutes left,Case Keenumchanneled his innerJohn Elway, and led the Broncos down the field.
In that final 1:52, Keenum directed a 10-play, 62 yard drive, taking the Broncos all the way down into the red zone, where they kicked the decisive field goal with just seconds remaining.
Great story, right?
Wouldn’t have been, if the Oakland defense would have stepped up. On one of the most critical plays of the game, Denver was sitting on a second-and-20 at their own 10-yard line. Keenum toEmmanuel Sandersfor 21 yards, and a first down. Boom.
Facing another second-and-10, Keenum hit tight endJake Buttfor 14 yards. The killing blow, was a 26-yard catch and run from Keenum toTim Patrick. Who, you might ask? Exactly.
As bad as the defense was over the last 28 minutes of the game, they were even worse over the final two, and it cost them a win.
And that’s ugly no matter how you slice it.
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