After a physical beatdown of the reigning Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the Cincinnati Bengals were riding high. "Just look at their next three opponents," observers proclaimed -- with good reason, as the Bengals were staring at the Raiders, Browns and Lions in succession on their schedule. The three teams had combined for four wins and 23 losses before Week 10, while the Bengals had won seven of eight since their fluky Week 1 loss. Facing Bruce Gradkowski and the Raiders offense surely shouldn't be a problem for a team that held Ben Roethlisberger in check, right? Well, that's why they play the games.
Oakland scored 10 points in the final minute of regulation to upset Cincinnati, 20-17.
The Bengals jumped on top 14-0 behind two Carson Palmer rushing (that's not a typo) touchdowns.
This is where you have to give Oakland credit. Aside from the most devout of Raider Nation, no one thought Cincy would lose this game. After coughing up two touchdowns, the Raiders could have rolled over and taken the easy way out. Instead, they fought and they fought harder than they have all season.
Behind four takeaways -- seriously, Carson, there's a reason no one ever throws at Nnamdi Asomugha -- the Raiders rallied back. Gradkowski didn't light up the stat sheet, but he found a way to claw his team back in the game. He even shook off a mistake of his own to rebound with a game-tying drive.
With 6:08 left in the game and his Raiders trailing by a touchdown, Gradkowski had a chance to complete Oakland's rally after taking over possession in Cincinnati territory. Instead, he threw an interception on the first play of the drive. But his defense picked him up by forcing the Bengals to punt.
Gradkowski must have wanted more of a challenge. The second time around, he had just 2:12 to work with and the Raiders needed to move 80 yards. They did just that, 79 of those yards coming from Gradkowski's arm. He worked beautifully on the drive and found Louis Murphy in the end zone to tie the game with 33 seconds left.
The game appeared destined for overtime until Andre Caldwell fumbled the ball back to the Raiders on the ensuing kickoff. Already well within the strong-legged Sebastian Janikowski's range, the Raiders kneeled three times and let the Polish placekicker bring the win home. He connected on the 33-yard field goal and the Raiders had upset the Bengals, 20-17.
The Raiders got a nice game from tight end Zach Miller, who caught five passes for 65 yards and a touchdown, but the story was their ball-hawking defense and special teams giving the offense multiple opportunities to win the game.
The Bengals were without leading rusher Cedric Benson, but rookie Bernard Scott filled in admirably with 119 yards on 21 carries (recent addition Larry Johnson had two carries for a measly five yards). Again, though, the major theme here was Cincinnati's inability to hold on to the football -- you can't turn it over four times on the road and expect to beat anyone.
The Raiders will look to keep things going when they travel to Dallas for a Thanksgiving bout with the Cowboys.
The Bengals actually didn't lose any ground in the standings, as every single AFC North team lost on Sunday. So they received a gift. They'll count their blessings and look to take care of business against the Browns at home next Sunday.
Next stop, Skyline Chili. RT @terrellowens: Okayyyyyy I got it now, 2 n's & 1 t! CINCINNATI!! LOL!
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Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Thanks for a positive article on the Raiders Matt ... there have been so few ... even when they lost tough games and the silly constant reminders of Cable's challenges have been way over played. A big part of their ineptness has been due to having Russell regress and his inability to hit a wide open receiver ... no one is going to win games with a 35% completion rating and Gradkowski is no premiere QB but at least he can hit someone when they are wide open. The Raiders are a pretty beat up team but at least their defense hung tough ... thanks for recognizing it Matt. Even though most won't give the Raiders much of a shot against Dallas they could surprise some people. Parity equals "on any given Sunday". Look how the bottom two of the AFC West beat the top two of the East! The KC game was as big a surprise as the Raider game was and just shows you that you have to come in expecting a game each Sunday.
Good article. No on expected the Bengals to lose this game. They've been playing well with mistake free football all year. This game was uncharacteristic of the new look Bengals but give credit to the Raiders. They've always had good defense, if they can ever get a franchise quarterback they would be a very solid team. They have talent on both sides of the ball, although Al Davis is famous for his horrible draft picks, some of their later picks have turned out pretty good.
I live in cincinnati i was talking mass crap i picked the raiders this week all week
here is something the raiders fans and coaches should look at very close too. in 9 games j russ 2 tds in that time. bruce in one game as starter 2 tds in 1 game, that shows you he can find the open man. and how about the 3 incomplete passes then 4th and ten a frist down pass. what dose that tell you al davis that j russ is the biggest bust in nfl history. now the team may fight harder every week for the rest of the season now and win some games. cable it is about time you benched russ. why did it take you so long in doing so. i would of benched him after the frist game. three years and no improvement. j russ showed the world that all he knows how to do is lose games even in college. go raiders this thursday with dallas play hard and fight for the win.
Fist and formost Go Raiders !!!! Second I knew it all along . Not really Gradkowski doing it but with J.Garcia . I knew jrusty wasn't any good for a while . I am glad we will have that swagger now you just watch , BGrad is not missing wide open people . Confidence will build . Murphy will not drop a pass this thursday. I really think DHB will only miss 50% of the passes but they will be the shizznit. Mcfadden will throw a TD also.
If he ain't gonna do the work (J Russell) He don't need to get the money. He's a prima dona. Get rid of him. The Snake was twice as good and half his size. He's disrespecting my team and getting paid aload of money.
RAIDERS.....................
Right...??? Did you say something Cinco...? Oh...I thought I heard you say something? My bad. Seriously though...the Raiders?
I'm ashamed of how we played. It just goes to show that we really do need Benson. We will learn from this and move on. They took it too easy thinking the Raiders would be an easy win but we should never let our guard down. The Bengals are awesome and will win again! Kudos to you Raiders for a good game.
pay jamarcus his 3 mil next year release him as well as walker and please tell al we do not need any 60 mill wide recievers or corners
it was not cable, it was the man in the booth mr al (please let someone else run this team) davis. love the radiers, dont understand the owner..........
This as stiller fans know was going to happen after the Bengal fans disgraced the terrible towel the previous week. Look for more of the same until the cusre is reversed..... just ask the titans
LOL ... and What? The curse of the terrible towel is two fold and why the Steelers lost too? What a lame idea that your silly "terrible towel" has anything to do with anything! The Steelers have to play consistent on offense or they will wither away and that has nothing to do with a silly towel!
Accept it ... neither the Steelers or the Bengals are all that!
MORE for Chad Ochistinco to complain about now..