In a game of give and take, Raiders rally to beat Bears in London

by Tom LaMarre

In the words of Charles Dickens, it was the best of times and the worst of times for the Oakland Raiders in London.

Fortunately for the Silver and Black, the best came when Derek Carr drove the Raiders 97 yards to Josh Jacobs’ two-yard touchdown run with 1:57 left in the game that lifted Oakland to a 24-21 victory over the Chicago Bears at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Cornerback Gareon Conley iced the victory the Raiders (3-2) nearly gave away with mistakes by intercepting a pass thrown by Chase Daniel of the Bears (3-2) with 1:14 left, and Maurice Hurst added the punctuation mark by sacking Daniel on the final play.

“It was a great performance by our team,” said Coach Jon Gruden, who won two straight games for the first time in his second stint with the Raiders after going 4-12 last season. ”We had a lot of peaks and valleys and had a lot of distractions. A lot of good players, really good players didn’t play tonight. We had some people step up and got a big win.

“This was good. A key road win against a good football team. It was in the playoffs last year. So we're making progress. We've got some injuries to deal with. And really, really proud of our coaches and players and everybody affiliated with us right now. We’re working hard.

“Several long drives tonight. We had some penalties, even on the opening kickoff that knocked us out of field goal position, turned the ball over on the one-yard line going in. It's great to have players that continue to play and fight for each other on the Raiders.

“Our fans would be proud of them, I’m sure.”

The Raiders played some of their best football of season while building a 17-0 halftime lead and it could have been more but rookie Hunter Renfrow couldn’t hold a catch-able pass from Carr and guard Richie Incognito committed two costly penalties.

The worst came after Oakland stopped the Bears again with a three-and-out on their first possession of the second half, as one mistake after another helped Chicago score 21 straight points to take the lead.

Carr appeared to change the play at the line of scrimmage and pitched the ball to Jacobs, who apparently didn’t get the message and the ball went flying past him. Jacobs compounded the problem with a rookie mistake, trying to pick up the ball rather than simply falling on it.

Former Raiders star Khalil Mack recovered for the Bears at the Oakland 14 and after a pass interference penalty against Oakland safety Lamarcus Joyner, David Montgomery scored on a one-yard run to cut the deficit to 21-7.

The Raiders’ offense, potent for much of the game, stalled and Daniel, who completed 22 of 32 passes for 231 yards in place of injured starter Mitch Trubisky, threw touchdown passes of four and 16 yards to Allen Robinson to give Bears a 21-17 lead after three quarters.

The Raiders seemed ready to go-ahead early in the fourth quarter after Carr guided them 62 yards to the Chicago three-yard-line and threw a short pass to wide receiver Trevor Davis, who had the ball punched out of his arms by cornerback Sherrick McManis right before he reached the goal line and the Bears recovered.

The Raiders again seemingly had a chance to retake the lead early in the fourth quarter when cornerback Daryl Worley intercepted Daniel’s pass and returned it to the Chicago 31, but defensive tackle Maurice Hurst hit with a questionable flag for roughing the passer.

Hurst, who led the Raiders with five sacks last season, was credited with 2.5 in this game as Oakland got to Daniels for five takedowns after having only five in the first four games and a paltry 13 all of last season.

“All we hear about is their pass rush every day,” Gruden said. “It’s great to talk about ours.”

Oakland took over at its three-yard-line with 7:53 left in the game and Carr engineered the 17th game-winning fourth-quarter drive of his career, including seven in 2016, four the year before that and three last season.

The drive nearly died early, but the Bears were called for roughing punter A.J. Cole, moving the Raiders close enough for Erik Harris to run four yards for a first down on fourth-and-1 from the Oakland 27 with 5:48 left in the game.

Carr, who completed 25-of-32 yards for 229 yards without a touchdown or interception, hit on 5-of-6 for 55 yards on the drive, including two to rookie tight end Foster Moreau for 37 yards to the Chicago 37-yard line and 12 yards to the two.

With top wide receivers Tyrell Williams and J.J. Nelson out because injuries, Carr completed passes to nine receivers.

Jacobs, selected in the first round with one of the draft choices the Raiders got for Mack, made up for his miscue with his best game as a pro, rushing for 123 yards on 26 carries and two touchdowns—including the game-winner.

“Jacobs got hurt early in the game,” Gruden revealed. :He came back twice it. He proved a lot tonight. He made some great runs.”

Said Jacobs: “This is a huge confidence boost. We got tired of hearing how good their defense was. They deserve that praise because they’re really good, but we’re really good, too. We wanted to let the world know who we are.”

As for Mack, the pass-rusher supreme who had 12.5 sacks last season and 4.5 so far this year, he had only three tackles in the game and the Raiders’ pass blockers held him without a sack.

“Of course we take that personally,” Incognito said, playing his third game after a two-game suspension. “Mack was talking about how he was looking forward to playing us and all that stuff. There’s history. We came out, and we were physical with him, and they didn’t like it.”

So in the end, the Raiders had a jolly, old time in London.

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