Baltimore vs. Oakland
Ravens Suffer First Loss of the Season After Late Touchdown From Raiders
The Baltimore Ravens dominated the Oakland Raiders on the stat sheet, but the scoreboard—the only metric that counts—told a different story.
Michael Crabtree, who had three scores, caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from Derek Carr with 2:12 left to provide the winning points for the Raiders in a 28-27 final, sending the Ravens (3-1) to their first loss of the season in front of 71,152 fans at M&T Bank Stadium on a comfortable 65-degree fall day. The Raiders also improved their record to 3-1 following the win.
Despite the loss, the Ravens held the ball for nearly 10 more minutes than Oakland, had 25 first downs compared to the Raiders' 13, and outgained Oakland in yardage 412-261.
"We kept the pressure on ourselves too much. What we needed to do was put the pressure on our opponents more than ourselves," head coach John Harbaugh said after the game. "Those are the things that hurt us. Those are the things we have to do better and play the kind of football we are capable of playing to win these kinds of games."
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Baltimore trailed 14-3 at one point in the first half and 21-12 early in the fourth quarter before charging back to take the lead on a Terrance West touchdown run, but the Raiders were able to convert one more scoring drive to make the difference.
Oakland (3-1) has been one of the biggest surprises in the NFL through the one-quarter mark of the season, winning their first three road games after struggling away from home for years, especially in the Eastern time zone.
"We really at some point stopped talking about the time zones and all that," Oakland head coach Jack Del Rio told reporters following the game. "I think good football teams find a way to play well wherever they are."
Playing from behind most of the day, Joe Flacco had a big throwing day, going 32-for-52 for 298 yards, a touchdown pass and no interceptions. West also rushed for 113 yards and a score. Steve Smith Sr. led the team with eight catches for 111 yards—52 of them coming on a fourth-quarter touchdown catch from Flacco.
"To come out and only put up six points in the first half and get off to that start, dig yourself a hole like that, and then…you have to play a perfect game," Flacco told reporters. "We need to find some ways to get some easy ones. I think our run game got some chunks today for us, I think that got us going a little bit, and that helped us out when it did get going. Hopefully, we can find some more of that."
Outside of being unable to stop the Carr-to-Crabtree connection, the defense played fairly well. They held Oakland to just 62 yards rushing—an average of 3.3 yards-per-carry on 19 attempts. But the defense couldn't pressure Carr, recording no sacks, and the Raiders won the turnover battle, 2-1.
"The stats say that we did well, but I know how we play, how we feel about our defense, [and] we don't want to give up those kind of plays," linebacker C.J. Mosley said.
West's solid day on the ground came after Harbaugh's decision to deactivate Justin Forsett prior to the game.
"I think I need to make clear—that doesn't mean we think Justin Forsett was the problem with the running game, by any chance," Harbaugh said. "But, you've got to try to do something else, too. That's what we tried to do this week."
GAME RECAP
The Ravens' defense started off well, holding the Raiders to a three-and-out on the opening drive of the game. The teams traded punts for most of the first quarter, but Jalen Richard took a Sam Koch punt 47 yards to the Baltimore 6-yard line late in the first. On the next play, Carr connected with Seth Roberts for a six-yard touchdown to make it 7-0 Raiders.
The Ravens responded with Flacco completing a number of short passes to march Baltimore downfield, but the drive stalled at the Oakland 5-yard line, and Justin Tucker kicked a chip-shot field goal to make it 7-3.
Oakland scored again on a long drive that ended with a five-yard touchdown pass from Carr to Crabtree to extend the Raiders lead to 14-3. Tucker was able to connect on a 43-yard field goal to send the game into halftime with Oakland on top, 14-6.
Neither team got anything going in their first possession of the second half, but Baltimore had success on their second drive, as they took seven minutes off the clock by going 72 yards, ending with a one-yard quarterback sneak by Flacco for a score. The two-point conversion attempt that would've tied the game failed, so it was 14-12.
A key play occurred on the second play of the fourth quarter, as Flacco fumbled when being sacked by Bruce Irvin, and the Raiders took over at the Ravens 29-yard line. Carr ended up finding Crabtree from 13 yards out on the ensuing drive to put Oakland back up by two scores, 21-12.
Flacco was able to redeem himself with 6:38 left when he connected with Smith for that 52-yard touchdown, bringing the score to 21-19.
The defense then came up big by forcing a fumble from Raiders running back DeAndre Washington. Lawrence Guy knocked the ball loose, and it was recovered by Tavon Young at the Oakland 17. Four plays later, West ran it in from three yards out to give Baltimore its first lead of the day at 27-21 after Flacco completed a two-point conversion to Mike Wallace.
But after completing two passes to Crabtree already on the next drive, Carr hit him from 23 yards out for the eventual game-winning score, 28-27 after Sebastian Janikowski kicked the extra point.
Flacco had 2:12 and two timeouts to get into field goal range for Tucker, but the closest they could get was to the 50-yard line, and an incomplete pass intended for Kamar Aiken ended the Ravens' chances with 48 seconds remaining.
UP NEXT
Baltimore hosts regional rival Washington next week, who are now 2-2 after defeating Cleveland 31-20 on Sunday. Despite the geographical closeness of the two teams, they only meet once every four years when the AFC North matches up with the NFC East.
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