As fun as it was to imagine the Raiders laying waste to the rest of their schedule, the core of their personality returned in a 27-20 win over the Houston Texans at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.
Rested off a bye, after having bulldozed the Denver Broncos, it was easy to get caught up on a return to dominance.
Instead, the Raiders gave a national television audience a more accurate portrayal of what makes them tick than the 30-20 win over Denver on a Sunday night two weeks ago.
The Raiders know how to win.
Yes, they got some help from a bad call on a would-be touchdown pass from Brock Osweiler to DeAndre Hopkins and a pair of questionable spots late in the fourth quarter.
But even more than that, the Raiders, a game up in the AFC West and the top seed in the conference, have found the most important and elusive formula in the NFL when it comes to the final score.
That formula can change week to week. This time, on a night when they got outplayed on both sides of the line of scrimmage, Derek Carr looked to his running backs in the passing game and they delivered.
In all, Raiders running backs caught 11 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns, a 17-yard pass to Jalen Richard and a 75-yard pass to Jamize Olawale that tied the score 20-20.
The game-winner came in a more conventional manner, a 35-yard catch-and-run from Carr to Amari Cooper. Carr finished 21 of 31 for 295 yards and three touchdowns.
The pass to Olawale was a nice bit of design by offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, who put Cooper in the backfield and had him flare to the right, bringing with him the attention of the Houston defense.
Olawale, all by his lonesome, got downfield and scored on a 75-yard play that was a gut punch to a Houston team that had settled for 28-yard Nick Novak field goal when it appeared in position to get a touchdown.
A 39-yard pass to Latavius Murray got the Raiders in position for Cooper’s touchdown, and a 30-yard pass to Richard singled up on linebacker Bernardrick McKinney put the game away with 3:13 left. The Texans had gambled Carr could complete a pass and get a first down and had punted the ball.
The Raiders, who hadn’t run the ball a lick all night, also had their longest gain on a fourth-and-1 to help kill the clock when coach Jack Del Rio opted to go for the first down rather than punt the ball.
“This league is designed for everyone to go 8-8, and there are some teams that just have a little more here or there,” Carr told the ESPN broadcast crew following the game.
The Texans fell to 6-4, angry about the officiating and falling in line with teams like New Orleans, Baltimore, San Diego and Tampa Bay — teams that thought they could have or should have beat the Raiders but went away disappointed.
— Coming off the 218-yard rushing performance against Denver, the Raiders had 30 yards on 20 carries and only three rushing first downs. After not having a negative carry against Denver until the 35th carry of the game, Richard was hit for a 5-yard loss on the Raiders first run of the night.
— Third-down defense, an area where the Raiders have excelled all season, was often victimized by a Houston team that had the NFL’s 30th ranked offense and Osweiler, the league’s No. 32 ranked passer.
The Texans were 8 of 16 for third down. Both previous times the Raiders gave up 50 percent or better, they lost to Atlanta and Kansas City.
— Both teams were winded from the altitude, but says a lot for the Raiders that they were able to pull away in the humidity of Tampa in game that went nearly five full quarters and that they were the better conditioned team in the fourth quarter in Mexico City.
— Carr ended up 21 of 31 for 295 yards and three touchdowns, but the passing game was far from smooth. Michael Crabtree (three catches, five yards) and Seth Roberts had issues with drops.
On his first throw of the second half, Carr threw one up for grabs and was intercepted on a deep throw, a turnover the Texans turned into a touchdown.
— Despite the altitude, Del Rio opted to throw the ball (incomplete) on fourth-and-1 from the Houston 41 rather than give Sebastian Janikowski a shot at a 58-yard field goal with 21 seconds left before halftime.
Had Janikowski missed, the Texans would have gotten the ball back near midfield with a chance for a completion and long attempt of their own.
