The Oakland Raiders’ Week 7 overtime nail-biter against the New York
Jets proved to be more than just an ordinary win for the silver and black.
It was a game -- if you’ve followed the team long enough -- you’d expect
the Raiders to lose. It had all the signs of a typical Raider screw-up:
• Oakland was leading, 10-3, heading into the fourth quarter. The choke
scenario was set.
• The offense was stagnant, but the defense was keeping the team in the
game for three quarters. The late-game defensive collapse was due.
• The Jets rallied with a tying field goal in the final seconds of the
fourth quarter to send the game to overtime.
• New York won the OT coin toss.
• Brett Favre was the opposing QB.
Still, the home crowd remained in the game. It was a loud, chaotic
environment for New York to deal with. Fans were hoping -- not so much
expecting -- their team would win.
But, if Favre and Jets effortlessly went down on the first drive of OT
and kicked a field goal to win, there’d be no surprises. It simply would
have been the Raiders’ 66th loss in 5 1/2 years. After witnessing so
many late-game collapses over the past half-decade, they start to become
mind-numbing, routine losses. They’re second nature.
The last time the Raiders had won a game in overtime was over five years
ago, on Sept. 28, 2003. Dating back to the beginning of that ‘03 season,
Oakland has lost 27 games -- 41 percent of the team’s total losses since
that time -- by a touchdown or less, and has already blown
fourth-quarter leads twice this season.
This time around, though, things were different.
Oakland looked like it wanted to win. The defense refused to break; the
offense didn’t commit its usual late-game blunder; and the special teams
refused to choke in the clutch. Yes, all three of those things happened
simultaneously. Even an uncharacteristic fake punt worked out -- one
that led to tie-breaking field goal 12 minutes into the fourth quarter.
It was a side of the Raiders that’s been in hiding for five years. They
were grinders; they were resilient; they were … yes, clutch … for once.
That’s all a part of interim head coach Tom Cable’s new mantra. After
being re-assigned from offensive line coach to head coach prior to Week
6, Cable took down ex-head coach Lane Kiffin’s “I’m in” sign in Alameda,
Calif., and replaced it with a “1-0” banner.
“We’re 1-0 and we’re going to enjoy it,” Cable said after the game.
In reality, Oakland now sits at 2-4, and Cable is 1-1 as a head coach,
but the 44-year-old’s new one-game-at-a-time philosophy is just what the
young Raiders need at this point in the season.
Even after calling a timeout to ice Jets kicker Jay Feely in the final
seconds of the fourth quarter -- a horrible backfire that allowed Feely
to re-kick a game-tying ball he missed on the first attempt -- Cable
admitted: “I called it ... But we just kept grinding.”
Grinding is right. The Oakland ‘D’ stopped the Favre-led Jets’ offense
three times in overtime and it wasn’t until 12 minutes and 25 seconds
into the extra quarter that the Raiders were able to seal the deal with
a 57-yard Sebastian Janikowski field goal.
“In previous times, if we had been in this situation, guys would have
been pointing fingers, or saying why did this happen, what’s going on,
or here we go again,” second-year defensive end Jay Richardson told the
Sacramento Bee. “But no one had that attitude this time.”
“Everyone was together. I think it’s the first time since I’ve been here
that I’ve seen the whole team have the same feel about something like that.”
The Raiders don’t get to enjoy the feeling of being 1-0 very often. For
now, it seems Cable is bringing that mentality back to Oakland, and it’s
refreshing.
