Oakland Raiders Ground the New York Jets: Silver and Black is Back!

John Doublin – Sep 26, 2011

It's a great day to be a member of the Raider Nation as the Oakland Raiders defeat the New York Jets 34-24 in the first game of the year at O.co Coliseum in Oakland California.

The offense had a stellar day led by Darren McFadden. The defense started off a bit shaky, but pulled it together and played well forcing four sacks and one turnover.  The special teams made the momentum changing play of the day when rookie Taiwan Jones recovered an Antonio Cromartie fumbled kick off to set the Raider offense up deep in Jets' territory.

There are still some areas of concern for Oakland, but in the end it was a hard fought, well earned win for the men in Silver and Black.

The Raiders received the opening kick off and marched right down the field scoring on a two-yard McFadden run. At that point, it seemed as though the Raiders offense was there to play. On the ensuing drive, the Jets returned the favor by moving the ball virtually at will, culminating in a Mark Sanchez one-yard roll-out touchdown to tie the game.

After Tyvon Branch intercepted a Sanchez pass in the endzone to kill a Jets' drive, the teams exchanged punts until the Jets added a field goal to take a three point lead in the second quarter.

This is when things turned a bit crazy.

The Jets scored the next 10 points, almost uncontested. Horrific tackling and bad penalties by the Raiders' defense allowed the Jets' offense to appear unstoppable. LaDainian "Raider-Killer" Tomlinson had a huge gain on a screen pass that, in all honesty, should have been stuffed for little to no gain.  Middle linebacker Rolando McClain had his hands on the Jets' running back, but exhibited poor technique and allowed Tomlinson to spin free.

The next play saw Sanchez find Tomlinson once again, this time for an 18 yard touchdown over the middle. It's hard to tell if it was a blown coverage or if outside linebacker Quentin Groves was beaten fair and square. Whatever the case, the Jets took a 10 point lead.

Then, things changed—dramatically. The Raiders came storming back and scored the last 10 points of the half.

Darren McFadden showed the world why he should be considered one of the best running backs in the league with his career best 70 yard touchdown run. Aided by phenomenal down-field blocking by wide receivers Derek Hagan and Chaz Schilens, McFadden took it around left end and to the endzone with 3:40 left in the first half.

After the Raiders forced another Jets' punt, they moved down the field and Sebastian Janikowski added a 49 yard field goal to conclude the first half scoring.

In the second half, the Raiders came out of the locker room with a renewed purpose on defense. The defensive line began to really get after Sanchez hard, forcing four sacks in the second half, including two by Denver Broncos' cast-off Jarvis Moss. Linebacker Kamerion Wimbley added one of his own and Richard Seymour and Tommy Kelly combined for one more as the Raiders' front seven dominated the Jets' offensive line.



Last week's Pepsi Rookie-of-the-Week Denarius Moore made what should be considered for Play-of-the-Week when he took a reverse from Michael Bush 23 yards for a spectacular touchdown. The play looked to be blown up in the back field by Jets' outside linebacker Jamaal Westerman, but Moore put a great cut back move on and off he went—diving into the endzone to give the Raiders a 24-17 lead with :40 to go in the third quarter.

On the kick off that followed, Jets' cornerback/returner Antonio Cromartie fumbled and it was recovered by rookie running back Taiwan Jones deep in Jets' territory. Two plays later, Michael Bush waltzed into the endzone untouched to give the Raiders a 31-17 lead after one play in the fourth quarter.

After nearly 10 minutes of great defense from both teams, the Jets pulled to within seven on the strength of a 16-yard touchdown pass from Sanchez to new Jet Plaxico Burress with 5:33 left in the game. Upon review, it appeared that Burress was unable to "maintain possession to complete the catch while going to the ground" as the rule book states, but that's a discussion for another article.

The pressure was on the Raiders' offense—and they delivered. Jason Campbell played a great game was was supremely efficient late with the game on the line. Campbell led the Raiders on an eight-play, 49 yard drive that consumed 3:00 of the clock. Sebastian Janikowski came on and drilled a 49 yard field goal to give the Raiders a 10 point lead.

However, the Jets never gave up and took the ball down to the Raiders' two-yard line. On the Jets' final play of the game, the Raiders' secondary covered all of Sanchez's receivers in the endzone and Sanchez was forced to scramble. The ruling on the field was that Sanchez scored to keep the Jets' hopes alive, but after the official review it was discovered that Richard Seymour got just enough of Sanchez's leg to trip him up and his knee hit the ground before the ball broke the plane of the goal line—ending the Jets' chances.

From there the Raiders simply ran a quarterback sneak and a kneel-down to kill the clock and clinch a win in the Raiders' 2011 home-opener.

It seems that the Raiders are proving a lot of "experts" wrong by beating a team that has been hyped as a Super Bowl contender. This will no doubt make the Raiders' players feel pretty good about themselves and provide them some well-earned confidence. Oakland shouldn't get cocky though as there is another, even tougher test for Oakland next week when Tom Brady and the New England Patriots come to O.co Coliseum to take on the Raiders in the "Black Hole."

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