Raiders coach Jack Del Rio probably wasn’t too happy when the third-year quarterback went leapt through the air to pick up a first down.
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Oakland Raiders wide receiver Michael Crabtree (15) pulls in a touchdown reception over New Orleans Saints cornerback Ken Crawley (46) in the second half of an NFL football game in New Orleans, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. I know that might be really unfair, but really good defenses don’t give up over 150 yards rushing EVER, and don’t squander 14 point second half leads.
But Saints coach Sean Payton conceded the obvious: “Looking closely at that fourth quarter, we were having trouble stopping anything”.
With the Saints at their own 2-yard line in the third quarter, quarterback Drew Brees dropped back and lobbed a pass to his No. 1 receiver, who did all the rest.
Last season, the Oakland Raiders were a young and talented team that shined at times, but ultimately failed to improve enough to end their postseason drought. Instead of sending out his kicker to attempt a game-tying PAT, he made a decision to roll the dice and go for two and the win.
“I was thinking, we’re here to win, let’s win it right now”.
Four games have already been decided by last-second field goal attempts.
Starting quarterback Derek Carr entered the season with five comeback wins in his career in just his two seasons, and he added to that in the Superdome, a tough place to play historically.
To quote reports from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and The New Orleans Advocate’s Nick Underhill, sources from the Saints indicate Breaux is expected to miss “significant time”. They finished out with 21 receptions (24 targets) for 373 yards and 3 touchdowns. As long as fantasy players had Cooks and Snead and not tight end Coby Fleener in their lineup, they were likely pleased with Sunday’s outcome.
A key explosive play was a 75-yard touchdown run by Jalien Richard, which, coupled with a subsequent 2-point conversion pass from Derek Carr to Amari Cooper, tied the score at 27 with 8:26 left.
Brees eclipsed 400 yards passing for the 14th time in his career, tying Peyton Manning for the most such performances in National Football League history.
With no timeouts, Brees found wide receiver Willie Snead over the middle getting the Saints to the 44-yard line.
The Raiders had touchdown runs of 6 yards by Latavius Murray and 2 yards by Jamize Olawale. Doyle only caught three passes for 35 yards, but two were for touchdowns – including a 6-yard strike from Andrew Luck for a late go-ahead score.
For like 10 seconds in the fourth quarter I thought, “The 2015 Saints defense weren’t this bad were they?” Lutz hit his first field goal from 42 yards out.
“I like this guy a lot”, Payton said of Lutz. The inability to generate pressure with a four man rush is going to be the thorn in Dennis Allen’s side all year long. Last year, the Steelers set a single-season record for most successful two-point conversions, though they still only had eight conversions on 11 attempts. We had a chance on that fourth down, but we didn’t do it, and then you’re just kind of hanging in there.
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Injury concerns led to the surprise release of Lewis, leaving the Saints with an incredibly inexperienced group of corners moving forward into 2016.
