In perhaps the wildest game of the year so far, Derek Carr led the Oakland Raiders on an 85-yard scoring drive in the final 2:25 to steal away a 31-30 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Thursday night.
Carr completed a 2-yard touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree with no time remaining to tie the game and Giorgio Tavecchio’s extra point just slipped inside the right upright to give the Raiders the one-point win.
If only the way the game got to that point was quite that simple.
Denico Autry came up with the first sack of the night for Oakland with 2:38 remaining, allowing the Raiders to get the ball back for a final possession trailing 30-24. Carr then connected with Amari Cooper for 15 and 39 yards to move into Chiefs’ territory. A 13-yard completion to tight end Jared Cook move the Raiders to the 29-yard line. Carr then hit Cook again for 28 yards down to the 1-yard line after he was ruled down by contact just outside the goal line.
That left the Raiders with eight seconds left to play with for their game-winning touchdown. Carr completed a fade to Crabtree only to have an offensive pass interference call negate the touchdown and move the Raiders back to the 11-yard line. With three seconds left, Carr’s pass for Cook went through his hands incomplete only to have a defensive holding call on Ron Parker give the Raiders another chance on an un-timed down. The same thing happened on the next play as Eric Murray was called for defensive holding on Cordarrelle Patterson to give Oakland a second un-timed down.
Carr then rolled to his left and found Crabtree in the front corner of the end zone to tie the game at 30-30. Tavecchio, who had missed a pair of field goals from 53 and 45 yards previously on the night, converted the extra point to give the Raiders the walk-off victory.
Cooper finally broke out for his best game of the season. After catching just 18 passes for 146 yards through the first six weeks of the season, Cooper caught 11 passes for 210 yards and two touchdowns for the Raiders on Thursday night. Carr posted the second 400-yard passing game of his career, throwing for 417 yards and three touchdowns on the night.
Alex Smith and the Chiefs were nearly as effective offensively. Smith completed 25 of 36 passes for 342 yards with three touchdowns on the night. Tyreek Hill, Albert Wilson and Travis Kelce all found the end zone for Kansas City. Hill had six catches for 125 yards on the night for the Chiefs.
Cooper’s two first half touchdowns helped the Raiders build a 14-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. Oakland pinned the Chiefs on their own 1-yard line only to watch Kansas City score in three plays as Smith hit Hill for a 64-yard touchdown to re-take the lead.
DeAndre Washington scored on a 4-yard run to give the Raiders a 21-20 advantage early in the third quarter. The Chiefs would respond with a 63-yard touchdown to Wilson that deflected off the hands of a Raiders defender. A 37-yard Harrison Butker field goal gave the Chiefs a 30-21 lead in the closing seconds of the third quarter.
Tavecchio converted a 26-yard field goal to close the deficit to 30-24 with 11:53 remaining before the wild ending to the night.