Oakland Raiders at Dallas Cowboys: Highlights, recap, final score

The Oakland Raiders fell to the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night, 24-20. Here are all the highlights, the recap and the final score.

Saturday night’s game between the Oakland Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys was an exciting one in the first half. Both teams were able to get into the end zone. Dallas got on the board first with a Dan Bailey made a 42-yard field goal.

Oakland would respond with a 17-yard strike from quarterback Derek Carr to wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson. Giorgio Tavecchio would miss the PAT, making it only 6-3 Raiders.

Dallas would march down the field on the Cowboys’ next drive, capped off by a 10-yard completion from quarterback Dak Prescott to tight end Jason Witten. The Cowboys would take a 10-6 lead over Oakland.

After both teams punted on their next possession, Carr would throw a brilliant pump fake to get Cowboys safety Byron Jones to bite. He would hit wide receiver Amari Cooper for an impressive 48-yard score. Oakland would make the PAT to take back the lead 13-10. The Raiders would lead by that score into the half.

The third quarter was an offensive struggle with EJ Manuel quarterbacking the Raiders and Cooper Rush quarterbacking the Cowboys. However, the Raiders were able to tack on seven more points thanks to a head’s up play from the defense.

Cornerback Antonio Hamilton was able to force a fumble from behind on Rush. The ball hung up in the air for a little bit, allowing rookie linebacker LaTroy Lewis to take it to the house for 65 yards of delicious pay dirt. Oakland would lead Dallas 20-10 through three quarters.

That 10-point lead for the Raiders didn’t last long. Dallas would eventually get it into the end zone on a Rush swing pass to Ronnie Hillman for six. The problem for the Raiders was that a terribly timed pass interference extended a drive on a series that should have ended on a failed fourth-down attempt from Rush.

Oakland would punt on its next series and have a bad penalty on the punt. It only took the Cowboys two plays to find pay dirt again. Rush would run the play-action fake to perfection, hitting wide receiver Lance Lenoir for a 44-yard touchdown. Dallas would now lead 24-20 late in the fourth quarter.

Raiders backup quarterback Connor Cook would lead a drive that had the Raiders with goal to go, but did not have enough time to pull off the come-from-behind win in Arlington. The Raiders fall to 0-3 on the preseason. While the defense got better in the first half, penalties and miscues in the back-end led to Dallas win a big one for the Cowboys at home.

Three Stars

1. Cooper Rush: Rush completed 12 of 13 passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 8.8 yards per attempt and had a quarterback rating of 143.1.
2. Derek Carr: Carr completed 13 of 17 passes for 144 yards ant two touchdowns. He averaged 8.5 yards per attempt and had a quarterback rating of 140.3
3. Jason Witten: Witten had a game-high six catches for 74 yards and a touchdown.

Highlights

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/901624939924537344

Next Game

The Raiders will play their final preseason game of 2017 on Thursday night against the Seattle Seahawks. Kickoff from Oakland Alameda Coliseum on August 31 will be at 7:00 p.m. PT. It will be nationally televised on the NFL Network.

Next: Oakland Raiders: Draft Saturday, 5 linebackers for 2018

With the Raiders getting incrementally better in each preseason game, maybe the Silver and Black doesn’t go 0-for in the exhibition part of the season this year. Even if they do, that doesn’t matter because this is just the preseason. It would have been nice to get the win over Dallas, but the Raiders have to close better to beat a good team like the Cowboys on the road.