
OAKLAND, CA — The Oakland Raiders may have been officially eliminated with the earlier Kansas City Chiefs’ 31-14 win over the Tennessee Titans, but that hasn’t stopped the Raiders from coming out on special teams and looking like a team who has something to play for. Right out of the gate, Raiders’ rookie sensation Jacoby Ford ran back the game opening kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown.
Now up 7-0, the Raider defense also showed that they too were up to the task at the beginning of the contest by stopping the perennial great Peyton Manning when they forced the Colts to go three-and-out on Manning’s initial drive. Likewise, the Oakland offense, which had shown great inconsistency throughout today’s game, was shut down as well on their first drive from scrimmage. In fact, Oakland gave up back-to-back three-and-out drives to start their offensive game.
Peyton Manning would however bounce back from his previous two failed drives and follow it up with a brilliant 57-yard slice and dice of a drive that ended with a 6-yard touchdown run by RB Joseph Addai to even up the score 7-7.
It wouldn’t be until Oakland’s third drive did QB Jason Campbell complete his first pass of the game; a 1-yard dump off to RB Darren McFadden. Campbell would complete only 1-for-3 in pass attempts, but leads the game with 3 three-and-outs at this point in the first half. I’m sure that did little to endear the defense as they had to come back into the game after another very short breather after another punt.
Manning, again with enough time to bake a cake, was allowed to carve up and confuse a Raider defense that at times seemed powerless to stop the Indy offense, but was able to prevent them getting in the endzone and hold the Colts to a field goal; making the score 10-7 Indy.
Oakland’s offense would get of the schneid and gain their first first down of the game to help extend their drive. In fact, the Raiders gained two first downs in this drive; a 1-yd run by RB Marcel Reece and a 17-yd run by RB Michael Bush. Those two drive savers would be key in the 9-play, 34-yard offensive drive because it allowed coach Tom Cable to elect to kick a field from 59 yards on 4th down. The gamble would pay off as K Sebastian Janikowski would blast one from 59-yards out that squeaked it’s way inside the left upright to tie the game at 10-10. After a defensive stop by Oakland, the Raiders offense continued to look much better than it did in the first as they would once again get into Janikowski field goal range. Jano would make the attempt to put the Raiders ahead 13-10.
However, the Colts would be left with too much time on the clock, and Peyton would make the most of it by marching his offense 88 yards in 1:19 for a touchdown and reclaimed the lead with a score of 17-13. With a precious few ticks on the clock, the Raiders could mount nothing heading into the locker room to end the first half.
Oakland’s defense caught a break when safety Michael Huff intercepted a Peyton Manning pass, but due to the lack of any real consistency by the Raider offense, Oakland would be forced to punt yet again. To the Raiders credit, the defense held and kept Oakland in the game and gave its offense an opportunity to live up to their side of the bargain. The best they could come away with would be a field goal to get them closer to the Colts and reduce the deficit to 1-point in a 16-17 game.
Peyton Manning would put on another clinic when he consistently picked on Raider cornerback Stanford Routt. One such attack count for a touchdown as the Colt lead would extend to 24-16. During the 4th quarter, Oakland had an opportunity to get back into the game when a Peyton Manning pass would get tipped by Raider LB Rolando McClain, picked off by CB Chris Johnson, fumbled and recovered by safety Mike Mitchell. But once again, because of very little offensive production, the only scoring came on the leg of kicker Sebastian Janikowski as he successfully booted a field goal to make the score 19-24 and make it a one score game.
Later in the 4th quarter, Peyton Manning continued to shine but this time, picking on Raider cornerback Chris Johnson who failed to turn around until after the receiver had caught the ball in the endzone. The Colts would now make it a 31-19 affair.
Oakland would show some life when Oakland generated a 12 play, 80-yard drive culminating in a 6-yard touchdown reception by TE Zach Miller to get them back to a one score game (26-31). The Raiders attempted an onside kick that was nullified because Indy called a time out just before the kick. But because Janikowski was already in his motion and kicked it anyway, the Colts got to see where the Raiders were going to kick the ball. After the timeout, Oakland kicked the ball exactly where they kicked it a moment ago, but was recovered by the Colts. The last ray of hope rested on the Raiders’ defense on 3rd down and no time outs for Oakland when Manning ran a bootleg and ran untouched just short of the goal line when Manning downed the ball to end the play and keep the clock running. Peyton would have scored the touchdown, but he exercised a bit of class by opting not to score. The Colts would then kill the clock by kneeling to preserve their 31-26 lead to end the game.