Will the revamped Raiders defense make them a contender in the AFC West? Is Drew Brees still going to be one of the league’s most productive quarterbacks? Did the Saints add enough balance to hang with the Carolina Panthers? Is Derek Carr ready to take the next step?
After these two losing-record teams played an early-afternoon with zero divisional, conference, or greater significance, I have absolutely no answers to any of these questions. But I do know that was the most entertaining and probably meaningless game we’ll ever see:
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The first half gave us a spectacular Derek Carr front flip and some nice chunk gains from Brees and the passing offense—but in the third quarter, the game got absolutely bonkers.
Raiders punter Marquette King, one of the best young boomers in the game, pinned the Saints on their own two-yard line. In a bold play call, Brees dropped back off play action and zipped one 30 yards down the sideline to Cooks, who caught it in stride and blazed the rest of the 98 yards to the end zone:
With the score 24-10, it looked like New Orleans was cruising to an easy home win, and we’d had our dose of entertainment for the day.
Ah ha ha ha ha ha.
The Raiders mounted a scoring drive, cutting it to 24-13 with just over three minutes left in the third quarter; The Saints failed to answer when Lutz missed a 50-yard field goal. On the subsequent drive, Carr found Cooper for a 43-yard gain, then Michael Crabtree for another 25. Fullback Jamize Olawale made his only carry of the day count, plunging two yards for a touchdown. Suddenly it’s 24-19.
Carr tries throwing to Crabtree for a two-point conversion…but it fails.
Remember that.
The Saints drive for another Lutz field goal—but just two plays later, rookie tailback Jalen Richard rumbled through practically everyone wearing a Saints jersey on the way to a 75-yard touchdown. Two plays after that, Brees found Willie Snead for a long gain and then…well, pandemonium:
Travaris Cadet catches the two-yard touchdown pass to cap the drive, and the Saints go back up 34-27.
Carr took back over on his own 25 with 6:03 left, and engineers a remarkable six-play, four-minute drive to the Saints’ 23-yard line. Then he throws incomplete. And incomplete again. And is forced to scramble for five yards on 3rd-and-10.
Then, on 4th-and-5, Carr tries flipping it to Richard—but Saints linebacker Craig Robertson commits pass interference, extending the drive. Carr almost immediately hits Seth Roberts for a 10-yard score, and the Raiders are down by one point with just 52 seconds left.
Remember the missed two-point conversion? Yeah, Jack Del Rio goes to that well again, letting Carr throw to Crabtree for the win, rather than the NFL’s convoluted overtime.
This time, Crabtree hauls it in.
But Brees isn’t done yet. He quickly marches the Saints down the field, including passes to Snead of 13 and 21 yards. He runs out of time at the Raiders’ 43, and Lutz came out to try a 61-yard field goal.
Context: The Saints had a veteran kicker battle all training camp and preseason long, then cut the winner and signed Lutz out of Georgia State just four days before this game. Lutz lined up, got a log of leg on it and…
…just. barely. missed.
We certainly didn’t learn anything new about either team. They racked up 69 points on 993 yards of total offense, yet either could still go 10-6 or 6-10. Regardless of what either team does, we won’t remember this game as a deciding factor in the playoff race.
But we WILL remember it as one of the most thrilling low-stakes games of football we’ve ever watched.
