Raiders Hang On, Beat Lions, 31-24

by Tom LaMarre

For the Oakland Raiders, there’s no place like the Oakland Coliseum, at least for four more games.

Even though the Raiders are moving to Las Vegas next season, a near-capacity crowd of 53,318 showed up on Sunday to watch the Silver and Black pull out a 31-24 victory over the Detroit Lions when safety Karl Joseph knocked away Matthew Stafford’s fourth-down pass in the end zone with three seconds left in the game.

“I’m just happy we were able to make the big plays when it counted and got the win,” Joseph told reporters after the game. “That’s all that matters at the end of the day, but we can always learn and get better from this experience.

“ … It’s always a learning experience, we know we gave up a lot. I think we had a couple big stops in the red zone and took away points; whether it was a field goal and not giving up a touchdown.

“ … It was fun to be back in front of our crowd.”

The Raiders (4-4) returned home after playing five straight games away from the Coliseum, including what the schedule lists as a home game when they defeated the Chicago Bears in London.

With half their last season remaining in Oakland remaining, the Raiders could make a big improvement on their 4-12 record last year in the first season in Coach Jon Gruden’s second stint with the team.

“We’re building our team,” Gruden said. “I’m just going to continue to hit that chord. We want to win every week. We’d like to go to the Super Bowl and win it for our fans, and our players, and everybody included. We’re building a team, and I like some of the blocks we have in place. I’m going to leave it at that. We have a heck of a challenge on a short week.”

The Raiders have a quick turnaround and will try to keep it going on Thursday night when quarterback Philip Rivers and running back Melvin Gordon of the San Diego Chargers come to town.

That seemed to have turned into an even more difficult task when the Chargers’ defense shut down quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, 26-11, on Sunday.

The Raiders sound like they will be ready.

“There’s a great belief (in the locker room), because when you think about this team, we only won four games last year,” safety Lamarcus Joyner said. “And at the halfway mark we’re 4-4, and from here on–when you look at the games that we won, and the games that we lost, they were all close games, except for Green Bay.

“By winning, for the morale of the team, it just helps us build that confidence that we really can win any given Sunday. You have to fight. When you’re winning, you have to take it one play at a time. When you’re losing, you have to take it one play at a time. You have to understand that nowadays, in today’s game, it’s going to be a fight for four quarters.”

Even though Stafford torched the Raiders for 406 yards and three touchdowns, the defense came up with big plays beyond Joseph’s game-saver.

The next biggest came with 6:31 left in the second quarter and the Lions leading, 14-10, thanks to a 59-yard scoring pass from Stafford to wide receiver Kenny Galladay earlier in the quarter, Detroit’s gun-slinger was looking for more.

From Oakland’s 20-yard-line, Stafford tried to hit Galladay in the right corner of the end zone, but Raiders cornerback Darryl Worley made an acrobatic, one-handed interception.

That allowed the Raiders to take a 17-14 halftime lead on Josh Jacobs’ second touchdown run a few minutes later.

“It might’ve been the best play of my career, honestly,” Worley said of his first interception of the season. “I felt like going back and watching it was probably was just good technique. See ball, get ball.”

Even though Jacobs had another big game with 120 yards rushing and his two touchdowns while breaking Marcus Allen’s rookie rushing record, and the Raiders controlled the ball for 32:50, this game went-back-and-forth.

After the Lions tied the game, 17-17, on Matt Prater’s 23-yard field that was the only scoring in the third quarter, quarterback Derek Carr put the Raiders back ahead with a three-yard touchdown pass to rookie tight end Foster Moreau on the first play of the final quarter.

However, Stafford pulled the Lions even, with a 26-yard touchdown pass to tight end J.D. McKissic with 5:22 left in the game, but once again Carr saved some of his best for last.

Carr, who completed 20-of-31 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns, drove the Raiders 75 yards in seven plays and scrambled before hitting rookie wide receiver Hunter Renfrow with a nine-yard scoring pass on third down with 2:10 remaining.

“That was one of Derek’s best plays in the two years I’ve been here,” Gruden said.

Explained Renfrow: “It’s something we’ve been working on, just to become more available, and when a play breaks down, create a new play. Derek did a phenomenal job, the offensive line did a good job to protect and let him get outside the pocket. And from there, it was just backyard football.”

Said Carr: "I love this place. It’s special. To come home in front of them and get a win, especially the way we did it. … When you win one like this, it does so many good things for a team.”

Joseph and the defense still had to save it after Carr and Renfrow’s heroics, but as it turned out that was the 18th game-winning, fourth-quarter drive Carr has engineered in his career.

And a packed house was there to see it.

“Thank the fans for coming out,” Gruden said. “Thank the mayor and everybody else for letting us play a home game. It was great to get back in here.”

The Raiders Faithful will be back on Thursday night.