Raiders Outlast Jets, 38-33, In A Fast-Moving Track Meet Game

The Las Vegas Raiders won a defense-optional track meet game against the New York Jets, 38-33, as they came from behind in the second half to even their record at 4-4 while ending their four-game losing streak. 

To some extent this was a tale of two halves. The Raiders defense played another spectacularly bad first half against New York, as the Jets literally ran up and down the field on them throughout the first two quarters.  

The Jets made five trips to the red zone and came away with 23 points, while the Raiders could only manage two touchdowns, one on a 12-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kirk Cousins to tight end Brock Bowers, and the second coming on a 95-yard kickoff return by return man Dylan Laube for a score. 

The stats showed just how ugly it was. Former Raiders quarterback Geno Smith torched his old team for 146 yards and two touchdown passes as he went 11 for 17 to spark his new team. Even worse, running back Braelon Allen had 121 yards on 18 carries in the first half as the Jets closed out the half with a 23-14 lead. 

The second half was mostly Las Vegas, though, as the Raiders found their offensive rhythm and scored three touchdowns and a  field goal while “holding” the Jets to just ten points. The touchdowns came on a two-yard touchdown pass to Bowers, a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Cousins and a two-yard throw from Cousins to receiver Jalen Nailor, who finally showed up for the Raiders. Cousins wound up going 19-for-26 for 247 yards and three TD passes, while running back Mike Washington Jr. gave Vegas some balance with 83 yards on 36 carries.

The Jets countered with a 21-yard touchdown run by Allen, who was literally untouched on the run when he broke it outside. The Raiders finally got their first stop of the day after six consecutive scores by New York late in the third quarter, and that was the key to the turnaround. 

The really big stop happened later, though, as the Raiders forced a  short field goal by inducing a pair of incompletions from Smith after yet another Jets drive. That made it 35-33 with just over four minutes left, and the Raiders were able to get a couple of first downs, which allowed kicker Matt Gay to nail a 53-yard field goal to stretch the lead to five points. 

Smith was subsequently intercepted in the end zone by Jeremy Chinn on the Jets’ last-ditch drive with the clock running out. It wasn’t an impressive win by any means given the epic defensive breakdowns, but it does keep the Raiders’ season alive going forward.