OAKLAND – Countless dreams have died in the Black Hole.
Where the Jets’ season goes after today’s wild 16-13 overtime loss to the often-bumbling Raiders at rabid Oakland Coliseum will not be determined for another month or two.
But suffice this to say: They’ll remember this game for a long time.
In the end for the Jets, there were too many mistakes, too much inconsistency and a complete failure to take advantage of a struggling opponent that sometimes seems determined to beat itself. The Jets, who fell to 3-3 and two games behind first-place Buffalo in the AFC East, lost when Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski boomed a franchise-record 57-yard FG with 2:30 remaining in overtime.
The Jets had tied it on a 52-yard Jay Feely field goal with three seconds remaining in regulation, a kick that capped a desperate Jets’ drive and one that came on a bizarre second chance. Taking the ball over at their own 5-yard line with 1:05 remaining in regulation, the Jets drove down to the Raiders’ 34-yard line with 8 seconds remaining to set Feely up for a 52-yard attempt.
Feely, whose career high field goal is 55 yards, hit the left upright on the attempt, but Raiders’ head coach Tom Cable called timeout a moment before the snap so Feely got a second chance. His next kick was true through the uprights with three seconds remaining, leaving the Jets’ sideline euphoric and the Raiders stunned and it forced overtime.
The Raiders had taken a 13-10 lead on a 37-yard Janikowski FG with 2:56 remaining in regulation after they executed a marvelous fake punt on a direct snap to linebacker Jon Alston, who gained 21 yards on a fourth-and-2 from their own 27-yard line. The resilient Jets would not go away, engineering that last-ditch drive to tie the game.
Earlier, the Jets had tied the game at 10-10 on a relentless 11-yard scoring run by Leon Washington, who broke at least four tackles on the inside run with 8:00 remaining in the game. It was Washington’s first rushing touchdown of the season and a nice redemption for a fumbled punt earlier in the game.
On the tying drive, the big play was a 37-yard gain by Brad Smith on a reverse. Favre made a key block on Raiders’ linebacker Kalimba Edwards in the backfield to spring Smith.
The Raiders set the tone for the second half when they took the opening possession of the second half and drove the ball down the throat of the Jets’ defense to take a 10-3 lead on an 8-yard JaMarcus Russell scoring pass to Javon Walker 5:25 into the third quarter. The score ended an incredible streak of 139 consecutive offensive plays for the Raiders since their last offensive touchdown. For Walker, it was his first touchdown as a Raider and, because he missed last season with a knee injury, his first trip into the end zone since the 2006 season. On the drive, the Raiders beat the Jets’ defense with big plays of 16 yards on the ground by Justin Fargas, 18 yards on a reverse to Johnnie Lee Higgins and 16 yards on a Russell pass to Darren McFadden to set up the TD.
The Jets opened the game in a sprint on offense, beginning the opening drive spread in four wide receivers, a tight end and no running backs and in a hurry-up no-huddle. The drive, however, stalled in Oakland territory, leaving the Jets to settle for a 40-yard Jay Feely FG and a 3-0 lead 3:19 into the game. It was the first time the Jets have scored points on their first offensive possession in 10 games, dating back to last season. On the drive, tight end Chris Baker, who entered the game with seven catches this season, was thrown to six times, catching four.
The Raiders committed three offsides penalties on that opening Jets drive, an early start to what was a penalty festival for them. The Jets gave the Raiders their first three points when Leon Washington fumbled a Shane Lechler punt at the Jets’ 16-yard line. Thanks only to the penalty-prone Raiders’ ineptitude, Oakland came away with just a 29-yard Janikowski field goal to tie it at 3-3 with 1:49 remaining in the first quarter.
Moments earlier, the TD-starved Raiders scored on a Russell scoring pass to tight end Zach Miller, but it was nullified by an illegal formation penalty.
The Jets gave the ball away a second time in the first half when Favre was picked off in the Oakland end zone by former Giants’ safety Gibril Wilson. It was the third time in two games that Favre has been picked off inside the opponents’ 5-yard line. The Raiders, however, failed to capitalize, because Janikowski missed a field goal attempt from 40-yards – his first miss this season inside of 57 yards.
This was the soft part of the schedule the Jets needed to mow through with little incident before they have to face their toughest opponents. But that was not the case this afternoon in Oakland.