His 12-yard touchdown pass to receiver Seth Roberts with 26 seconds left lifted the Raiders to a 37-33 win over the Baltimore Ravens.
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Carr marched the Raiders 80 yards on nine plays in 1:44 for their game-winning touchdown, giving coach Jack Del Rio his first victory with Oakland.
But just as Del Rio refused to focus on any positives in a stinker of a loss last week, he wasn’t in the mood to dwell on any negatives after the victory.
This week, he didn’t get a chance to make the game-winning play, but he did leave defenders in his wake. Future Hall-of-Famer Charles Woodson will likely play, but he has been limited in practice this week after suffering a dislocated shoulder against the Bengals. “We have to go out there and make plays, we have to play better and be grown men”. They both delivered on Sunday with Crabtree catching nine passes for 111 yards and a touchdown and Cooper getting seven for 109 yards and a score.
Baltimore only had one receiver with a hundred yards our more during the game: Steve Smith, Sr. with 150 yards and 10 catches. Plenty of time for John Harbaugh and company to fix the problems and turn this whole thing around.
But the Ravens, as they had all game, gave as good as they got, taking charge in the final quarter beginning with another successful Justin Tucker field goal.
So it ended Sunday with Carr throwing a complete game and coming out of it with a win against a one-time Super Bowl MVP.
The defense looked nothing like a typical Ravens unit with Carr and the Raiders able to move the ball downfield easily with little pressure and plenty of big plays. With Rashaan Melvin out with injury, that will have to wait until Melvin can get back up to 100%. But in Week 2, every team that drafted quarterback in the first two rounds started him and won their game.
But Carr’s best moment came after he tossed his lone interception in the fourth quarter.
As a result, the Ravens are 0-2 for the first time since 2005, a reality that tight end Crockett Gillmore, who caught two first-half touchdown passes, described at “gut-wrenching”. His career high is 85 catches in 2012. “This is what I’ve felt like I’ve done from the first day”.
Baltimore remains winless on the season after alsodropping a close game to the Denver Broncos in Week 1. Elvis Dumervil replaced Suggs, who has a franchise-record 106 1/2 sacks, in the starting lineup. We have a tough road ahead. “The wide receiver group, because we brought in (Cooper) and (Crabtree), the guys that were here before, there was a lot of competition for those spots and playing time and what not. We have to take it one week at a time”.
Carr unable to capitalize off the turnover, set up Sebastian Janikowski’s 23-yard field goal extending their lead 10-0.
A major opportunity presents itself for Oakland, the ability to have Mack revert to linebacker and have Smith and Tuck play true defensive end. While the Raiders running game is still a work in progress, Penn’s nastiness was something the Raiders desperately needed. Latavius Murray had 65 yards on 15 attempts and a 1-yard touchdown. In the same situation last week, he stuck his mitt in the face of Bengals bad boy defensive back Adam “Pacman” Jones and was rewarded for the stiff-arm with a badly damaged thumb that rendered him unfit for duty for the rest of the opener.
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But when Ravens reeled off 13 unanswered points to take a 33-30 lead, the home team was primed to give another one away. They pulled even on running back Lorenzo Taliaferro’s 7-yard burst, capping an 11-play, 93-yard touchdown drive with 7:03 remaining. The pass rush that was supposed to be so formidable still doesn’t have a sack through two games.
