During a back-and-forth game with the New Orleans Saints in Week 1, the head coach of the Oakland Raiders made a decision to go for the win down by a point with 47 seconds left in the game.
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The Oakland Raiders trailed the New Orleans Saints by seven on their final drive Sunday.
Del Rio said Monday that Smith will be back in the starting lineup for Sunday’s home opener against Atlanta.
In the 3rd quarter, Brandon Cooks scored on a 98 yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees. New Orleans obviously doesn’t focus much on the ground game, so you’d like to see the Raiders shut down that attack.
“I was thinking that we’re here to win”, he said.
Trailing by 14 points in the second half and unable to slow Brees – who passed for 423 yards and four touchdowns – it did not seem as though the Raiders would be in a position to gamble, let alone show faith. Jalen Richard led in rushing with 84 yards and a touchdown while Latavius Murray added 59 yards and a touchdown.
Carr threw for 319 yards and a touchdown in 24-for-38 passes.
Gutsy call or something else?
In that same time period, there were 410 occasions when a team kicked the extra point down by one in the fourth.
INDIANAPOLIS – Matthew Stafford took advantage of one last chance Sunday and Matt Prater redeemed himself with a 43-yard field goal with 8 seconds to give the Lions a victory at Indianapolis.
Albeit over a Saints squad once again trending dangerously towards defensive-dumpster-fire status, it’s the kind of statement win that should’ve been its own exclamation point for the young-and-hungry Raiders.
What’s more, Brees often has chemistry with tight ends considering Benjamin Watson was third on the team with 825 receiving yards a year ago and Jimmy Graham notched a combined 4,396 receiving yards and 46 touchdown catches from 2011 to 2014 with New Orleans.
“There’s a point where you have to dig down and get off the field”, Payton said. Payton made the surprising move of cutting veteran incumbent kicker Kai Forbath in favor of Lutz this past week after the undrafted rookie out of Georgia State had been waived by Baltimore.
Somehow, some way, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers got rid of the ball with a guy draped pulling on him and, somehow, some way, Davante Adams caught it for a 29-yard touchdown just before halftime of Green Bay’s 27-23 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. “I think the long run hurt”.
Four games have already been decided by last-second field goal attempts.
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New Orleans cornerback Delvin Breaux underwent surgery on Monday morning to fix a fractured fibula, and the Saints expect the second-year cover man to return this season. 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.
