Oakland Raiders come up inches short to Dallas Cowboys, 20-17

The Oakland Raiders come up inches short to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football in Week 15, 20-17. Here are all the highlights and the game recap.

This game will live in infamy. Two of the roughest breaks you’ll ever see went against the Oakland Raiders in the fourth quarter against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. By maybe an inch, the Raiders lost both calls and the game to the Cowboys, 20-17. Oakland falls to 6-8, while Dallas improves to 8-6.

The Raiders and Cowboys only meet every four years, but this one certainly lived up to the hype. Oakland trailed the Cowboys 10-0 at halftime right off the heels of a Giorgio Tavecchio missed 39-yard field goal. The Raiders came out flat in the first half, but battled back to almost win the ball game.

Quarterback Derek Carr struggled with the deep pass all night. He only had 4.5 yards per attempt, while Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott averaged 7.9 per attempt. Not to say Carr was bad tonight, but his 171 passing yards and touchback fumble certainly didn’t help.

The Raiders have pretty much seen their postseason dreams come to an end. Thankfully, the Tennessee Titans lost to the San Francisco 49ers, so the Raiders aren’t completely eliminated from the AFC wild card picture. But that folded paper call on fourth down was the sloppiest officiating tactic I’ve ever seen. My goodness.

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We get that the Cowboys went for it on fourth down and it was within a link of a chain of being a first down. But to think that a lazily folded piece of paper could just be nonchalantly put in between the nose of the football and the “are we sure it was upright?” first-down marker was egregiously bad.

Dallas would score on the continued possession to take a 20-17 lead on a Dan Bailey field goal. Oakland had to go and get in field goal range. It wasn’t looking good before a 55-yard pass interference penalty on Cowboys rookie cornerback Jourdan Lewis set up the Raiders in easy field goal range for Tavecchio.

Needing just a first down, Carr tried to scamper for pay dirt. By switching to his non-dominant hand, he lost control of the football on the diving effort. The ball went out of the back of the end zone for a touchback. What an unbelievable series of events to lose a ball game. This has been the Raiders’ 2017 nightmare of a season.

Three Stars

1. Sean Lee: Lee had 10 tackles, six solo, two for a loss of yardage and a quarterback hit.
2. Michael Crabtree: Crabtree had seven catches for 39 yards and two touchdowns.
3. Dak Prescott: Prescott completed 18 of 27 passes for 212 yards, no touchdowns and two interceptions. He had six carries for 32 yards and a touchdown.

Highlights

Next Game

The Raiders will have to play on Christmas night in Week 16. They will play the NFC East champion Philadelphia Eagles (12-2) on Monday Night Football. Kickoff from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia will be at 5:30 p.m. PT, 8:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 25. ESPN will have the national broadcast.

Next: Raiders 2018 NFL Draft: 6 offensive tackles to target

Though the Raiders certainly played better than they did last week against the Kansas City Chiefs, this looks to be another lost year for the Silver and Black. The folded piece of paper garbage call was horrendous. Carr losing the ball out of the back of the end zone was a gut punch many of us may not get over for a while. Folded pieces, ARE YOU KIDDING ME???