A Tough But Valuable Lesson For Oakland
Article written by: Barbara Mason of Bay Area Sports Drive Magazine
Photos taken by: Doug Farrell
September 14, 2009
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Despite throwing an interception on the first drive of the game, the Oakland Raiders took it home on their second drive of the first quarter against the San Diego Chargers for the early lead 7-0. For the first twelve minutes of the game, it was the Darren McFadden show shoving the ball down the throats of the San Diego Chargers at will.    

It was however only the first quarter of the game and Oakland had to take it one quarter at a time and above all finish the game, something that they had trouble doing last season. As the first quarter wound down, Richard Seymour did what he came to Oakland to do. He sacked quarterback Philip Rivers.  A few plays later, LaDainian Tomlinson fumbled the ball and Oakland was back in business with the recovery. It was Tomlinson’s first fumble since October 2006. Again Seymour was in on the forced fumble.

Mid-way through the second quarter Oakland’s Darren McFadden coughed up the ball and San Diego recovered. The Chargers had begun to put the stops on McFadden and the long runs that persisted in the first quarter had come to a stop in the second. Despite a number of punishing hits by the Oakland defense, Philip Rivers drove his team down to the one-yard line and Tomlinson finished the drive for the touchdown to tie the game 7-7.

The half ended as both teams traded field goals both of them coming in the final minute of the second quarter for a 10-10 tie. The touchdown that would have given the Raiders the lead was negated when the replay assistant reversed the play and Oakland was forced to kick the field goal. That lost touchdown would come back to bite the Raiders.

The third period ended on a reverse play that put the Raiders on the San Diego 21-yard line, a play that earned them 25 yards and put them within striking distance, Unable to find the end zone, kicker Sebastian Janokowski stepped in to give Oakland the lead with a 35-yard field goal and a 13-10 lead.

The crucial fourth quarter began and Oakland had to revise history.  The Oakland defense made some spectacular plays but fell short on crucial third and longs letting the Chargers off the hook.  With less than eight minutes left in the game, San Diego took the lead 17-13.   

With 2:34 left in the game, a 57-yard pass from Russell to Louis Murphy sent the Raiders back into the lead 20-17.  Oakland needed to put this game away and their special teams set up the defense pinning the Chargers deep in their own territory.  With the clock running out, San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers drove his team downfield racking up the yardage and the downs. The defense crumbled when they were needed most.  The Chargers finished off the drive with a 5 yard run by Sproles beating the Raiders by the score of 24-20.

“A great effort by a football team, said Raiders head coach Tom Cable after the game.  “The lesson to be learned here is it’s not over until it’s over in the national football league.  You have to finish the game and we did not do that and that’s the reason we lost,” he said.  “A lot of guys played really well, and defensively we were on top of it until the end.” Cable was disappointed with kickoff coverage and feels that is where some of the improvement is needed.

“I like what I see,” said Richard Seymour in the locker room.  “I think the guys fought hard and we left it all out on the field.  We came up short and we are definitely disappointed. We didn’t make the plays when we needed to and that’s the most disappointing thing but I’m encouraged at the same time by what I see from the guys,” he said.  “We’ve got a lot of work to do.  We can’t be the same team that we are now next month because it’s not going to be enough.  We have to get better as a team.  We had them on the ropes but we just didn’t give them that last knockout punch.”

While Seymour did make some plays, he also admitted that he made a lot of mistakes as well and looks forward to improving as he heads into his first full week of practice.

“I’m glad to have him, most definitely glad to have him,” said Thomas Howard of Richard Seymour.  His defense made some brilliant plays through 31/2 quarters but it was the last couple of drives that turned the tables.   “Philip just found the right receiver and they were able to get the ball and get out of bounds,” said Howard.  “They kept the ball moving and they did a good job and made some plays.  We didn’t and that’s your ball game.”

There seems to be a very different attitude this year in the Oakland Raider locker room.  There is still a lot of work to be done, but there are also a lot of positives to be taken away from this game.  Oakland hung in there and fought until the end.  It is only going to get tougher as the season gets underway but the Raiders have a pretty solid foundation on which to build.  They will watch a lot of film this week as they get ready to travel to Kansas City continuing to build on that foundation.  Everything points to this team being alright, in fact, they will probably surprise quite a few teams as they play through this 2009 season. 

-- BASD --