Raiders ride Josh Jacobs to 2nd straight overtime victory
SEATTLE — Raiders owner Mark Davis burst out of a side room adjacent to his team’s locker room Sunday at Lumen Field wearing a satisfied smile and walking with a decidedly happy gait.
The Raiders had just defeated the Seahawks 40-34 in an overtime thriller at one of the most formidable environments in the NFL. And Davis was ecstatic.
“You gotta love a win like that,” he shouted after watching Josh Jacobs end the game on an 86-yard touchdown run to cap one of the best individual performances in franchise history, as he finished with a team-record 303 yards from scrimmage.
Nearby, Raiders quarterback Derek Carr concurred.
“That was a big, big win. For a lot of reasons,” he said, pointing out the new foundation being laid by coach Josh McDaniels, an owner that is behind that process and a lot of Raiders players who are finally learning how to win close games.
“It reaffirms the things we’ve been talking about,” Carr said. “It reaffirms what Josh has been talking to us about.”
It was the second straight walkoff overtime win for the Raiders (4-7), and unlike last week’s victory over the stumbling Broncos, Sunday’s was against a Seahawks team that entered the game tied for the NFC West lead.
The Raiders did so despite:
Spotting the Seahawks a 7-0 lead;
Two first-half interceptions by Carr;
Failing to convert on fourth and two from Seattle’s 48-yard-line late in the fourth quarter, which gave the Seahawks a short field with which to mount a go-ahead touchdown drive and take a 34-27 lead;
A missed field goal by Daniel Carlson on their first drive of overtime.
“Our team is learning how to be resilient,” McDaniels said.
The game featured five lead changes and plenty of heroes.
The list starts with Jacobs, who rushed for a franchise-record 229 rushing yards and two touchdowns and caught six passes for 74 yards to account for the 303 total yards. The magical performance came after he was listed as questionable with a calf injury and wasn’t cleared to play until two hours before kickoff.
“It’s kind of crazy, coming in and not knowing if I was going to play, looking the guys in the eyes and telling them they’re going to get everything they’ve got in me,” Jacobs said.
Seahawks defensive tackle Shelby Harris was impressed.
“He’s hard to bring down,” Harris said. “He’s a tough runner with good balance. You really gotta wrap him up. He’s not one of those backs that gets touched and falls. He makes his money off of breaking tackles and getting those extra yards.”
There also was a key one-handed catch by Davante Adams, 1½ sacks by Maxx Crosby and two critical stops by the defense to give the offense a chance to tie the game in regulation and win it in overtime.
The Raiders tied the score 34-34 on Foster Moreau’s 5-yard touchdown grab in the back corner of the end zone. They then won it when Jacobs took a first-down handoff from Carr and raced those 86 yards to the end zone.
Crosby, who had barely reached the sideline after leading a three-and-out stand to get the ball back to the offense, said he immediately knew Jacobs was going to score.
“I saw him hit the hole, and I was running on the field before he hit the end zone,” he said.
The dramatic victory doesn’t erase the frustration of the Raiders’ inability to win close games and turn a promising season completely sideways. But the two-game winning streak offers a bit of a reset.
To put it in perspective, the Raiders opened the game by throwing an interception on their first play to hand the Seahawks (6-5) prime field position and the 7-0 lead. Carr’s miscue began a wild roller-coaster ride of big plays, major disappointments and a series of highs and lows that would have been the demise of the Raiders earlier this season.
“It’s just growth, and we’re all just trying to do things the right way,” said Carr, who completed 26 of 35 passes for 295 yards and three touchdowns. “It shows that everyone is believing in that and trying to do it that way. You can tell everyone is believing and buying into that because of the success we’re starting to have. It doesn’t mean anything now — we still don’t have a good record — but we’re headed in the right direction.”
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on Twitter.
