LAS VEGAS: As slow, rude, and as ugly as the Las Vegas Raiders offense was Monday night, it was as efficient until late. And, as terrible as his defense was last season, he did enough against the Baltimore Ravens.
Faced with a delirious crowd of 61,756 stadiums from the Allegiant, and in the first game of the NFL regular season played in front of fans in the history of Las Vegas, the Raiders returned with an initial deficit of two touchdowns to remove a 33-27 win over Ravens in overtime at ESPN’s Monday Night Football.
“I felt like I was dying and waking up,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said. “And I died again. I was like a cat, I’ve had several lives tonight. I don’t like to play like that. It was hard, but again, we did a lot of good things to win that football game tonight.
“Our defense made an author play at the end of this game and I thought Derek Carr was amazing playing in really tough circumstances today against a very good defense.”
It was a wild OT period, with the Raiders thinking they had won on a 33-yard pass from Carr to Bryan Edwards, who instead decided he had fallen within the 1-yard line. Then Carr got wrapped up and a false start penalty in the first round, Alex Leatherwood, on the right entry, was followed by Carr’s pass to Willie Snead IV which threw him into the end zone for an interception. ‘Anthony Averett.
In the next Ravens, Lamar Jackson’s Carl Nassib recovery and Darius Philons ’recovery on the Ravens’ 27-yard line set up Zay Jones ’Carr pass, which won the game, which won the game, with 3:38 in the extra period.
Carr said the game was a microcosm of his eight-year NFL career with the Raiders: “Yeah! Shit! Wow! Dang!”
After a slow start, Carr finished with 435 passing yards and two TDs with INT completing 34 of 56 attempts, tied for the third most in a game of his career.
“I hope this is a sign of things to come for us,” said Carr, who has now won a franchise with five top opening players for the Raiders, including three in a row. “Who cares how we do it, we just win, right?”
It was a show that bore no resemblance to the appeal and glamor of Las Vegas: Gladys Knight performed the national anthem, rappers Ice Cube and Too $ hort performed a concert in the middle and, well, the Monday Night Football in Sin City, and while the crowd had their hiccup, making the Wave, while Raiders defensive back Gerald McCoy was removed from the field of play, it erupted at the exit of Jones ’TD.
“In Las Vegas, I tilted my hat, you showed up,” said Carr, who said it was the strongest environment he could remember and thanked the fans for being calmer when the offense was on the field. “He got really strong. Las Vegas did what he did and they helped us pull off that victory.”
In fact, he pushed the reconfigured Raiders defense as top runners Maxx Crosby had two sacks, Yannick Ngakoue gave a pass and Nassib, the first openly gay active player in NFL history, stopped Jackson in a play key to the third regulatory game before your game. -alterating strip bag.
“There’s a lot of news today,” Nassib said. “No one blinked. It was amazing. It sure was a great team victory.”
Crosby said, “For me, what stood out most were so many guys making big plays … everyone was flying.”
And that of Carr: “Please praise the defense.”
Daniel Carlson threw a 55-yard field goal with two seconds left to regulate to force overtime.
Gruden made a comeback, of all kinds, giving fans a hand in the reinvented southern Black Hole area of Las Vegas.
With the Raiders winning, all the AFC and NFC West teams are 1-0. According to ESPN Stats & Information’s research, there has never been a week since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, when several divisions won all of their teams.