Raiders offensive woes continue, fall 24-20

Originally published on Silver & Black Report on Nov. 10, 2013

The Oakland Raiders went into New York looking to get back on track against the Giants after their 49-20 blowout loss to the Eagles last week, but found little success.

After giving up a record-tying seven passing touchdowns to Nick Foles last week, the Raiders defense was able to step up and hold Eli Manning and the Giants to just 251 yards. Instead, it was the Raiders offense that struggled to get anything going once again, finishing the game with just 213 total yards.


Of those 213 total yards, Rashad Jennings accounted for 107 total yards - 88 rushing yards and 19 receiving yards. Jennings was the lone bright spot on offense for the Raiders, coming in and starting for the injured Darren McFadden.

Quarterback Terrelle Pryor's struggles continued to struggle as he was just 11/26 for 122 yards and two costly turnovers - one interception and one fumble.

Pryor's interception came on a slant patter to wide receiver Denarius Moore but Giants cornerback Terrell Thomas watched as Pryor locked on Moore and jumped the route, returning the ball to the Raiders five-yard line. The interception came when the Raiders were driving to another possible score at the Giants' 33-yard line and already up 20-14. The Giants quickly capitalized on a one-yard touchdown by running back Andre Brown, who had a big day in his season debut after suffering a broken leg in the preseason. Brown rushed a career-high 30 times for 115 yards and one touchdown.

Oakland's defense and special teams kept them in the game, contributing to 17 of the Raiders 20 points.

Raiders wide receiver Andre Holmes was able to recover a fumble on the opening kickoff when Jerrel Jernigan coughed up the ball, returning the ball down to the Giants' five yard line. Oakland capitalized with a one-yard touchdown run from Pryor, giving them the early 7-0 lead.

The defense forced a turnover of their own in the first quarter with Lamarr Houston forcing a fumble on running back Peyton Hillis, giving the Raiders the ball in the red zone again. But this time the Raiders were unable to get the ball into the end zone and had to settle for a Sebastian Janikowski field goal.

[caption id="attachment_12073" align="alignright" width="300"]<a href="http://www.sbreport.net/wp-content/porter1.jpg"><img alt="Cornerback Tracy Porter celebrates his touchdown after intercepting Eli Manning" src="http://www.sbreport.net/wp-content/porter1-300x199.jpg" width="300" height="199" /></a> Cornerback Tracy Porter celebrates his touchdown after intercepting Eli Manning[/caption]

Cornerback Tracy Porter would help the offense by jumping a route and picking off Eli Manning for a 43-yard interception for a touchdown to re-give the Raiders the lead at 17-14.

The Raiders special teams unit did make a mistake early in the game when Jack Crawford missed a block in a punting formation and the Giants broke through the middle to block Marquette King's punt and recover for a touchdown.

Pryor's fumble came with the Raiders down 24-20 with just over three minutes remaining in the game and the offense trying to orchestrate a game-winning drive. On 3rd and 10, Pryor held on to the ball for a long time, giving Giants defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka enough time to get into the backfield and strip Pryor of the ball.

From there, Brown kept his strong game going as the Raiders defense was unable to stop them from getting two first downs, allowing the Giants to run the clock out and hand the Raiders their sixth loss of the season.

The Raiders go back out on the road and head to Houston to take on the Texans next week.