5 season-defining games for the 2017 Oakland Raiders
By John Buhler
Don’t kid yourself. This was the best win of the season for the Raiders. It encapsulated everything we hoped to see from this team in 2017. On one Thursday night, the Raiders sort of put it all together. It made for one of the dozen or so best ball games to be played across the league this fall.
Oakland would be riding a terrible four-game losing streak heading into Thursday Night Football in Week 7. Coming into The Coliseum would be the arch rival Kansas City Chiefs, who were 5-1 and fresh off their first loss of the season to their own nemesis in the Pittsburgh Steelers. Oakland’s season was on the line and coaching staff changes could have happened then if the Raiders lost their fifth game in a row.
What we got was arguably Derek Carr’s best game of the season and the best offensive game plan of Todd Downing’s rough first-year calling plays. Oakland successfully attacked the middle of the field against a weakened Chiefs defense. The Raiders even tried to neutralize star rookie running back Kareem Hunt. Nobody up to that point had put up points on Kansas City like this.
It would take five plays inside the final seconds, but Carr would connect with Michael Crabtree for the game-tying touchdown. A nervous Giorgio Tavecchio would make the game-winning PAT shortly thereafter. Not to say this was an instant classic for the Raiders, but it was the highest point of the season for the Silver and Black. It’s a win this team can be proud of for sure.