Carr's 3 TD Passes Lift Raiders Over Ravens
OAKLAND (AP) —This game between the Raiders and Baltimore could be the last the league plays on a baseball infield.
With the Athletics eliminated from playoff contention, the Raiders will get the all-grass field back when they play their next home game on Oct. 11 against Denver.
With the Raiders playing on a one-year lease in Oakland and in talks with the San Diego Chargers about a new Los Angeles-area stadium, this could be their final season at the only remaining venue that is shared by an NFL team and a Major League Baseball team.
The dirt has not been unkind to the Raiders. They are 5-4 over the past six seasons with the infield that runs between the 20-yard lines and 12-19 with the all-grass field.
Derek Carr bounced back from a late mistake to lead the Oakland Raiders to an improbable win.
Carr threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Seth Roberts with 26 seconds left to cap the most productive day of his young career and lead the Raiders to a 37-33 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday.
Carr threw for a career-high 351 yards and three touchdowns and overcame a late interception that put the Raiders (1-1) in a hole in the closing minutes.
But Carr went 7 for 9 for 65 yards on the winning drive. He was helped by a personal foul on Timmy Jernigan and a hold on Will Hill III that negated an interception on the play before the touchdown that gave Jack Del Rio his first win as Raiders coach.
Joe Flacco threw for 384 yards and two scores but just missed an open Steve Smith Sr. in the end zone to force Baltimore to settle for a field goal before Oakland's winning drive. Flacco then threw a late interception that sealed it and sent the Ravens to their first 0-2 start since 2005.
The Ravens played their first game in nearly 17 years without either Ray Lewis, Ed Reed or Terrell Suggs anchoring the defense following Suggs' season-ending injury in the opener last week.
The defense looked nothing like a typical Ravens unit with Carr and the Raiders able to move the ball downfield with ease with little pressure and plenty of big plays.
The Raiders gained 448 yards — more than twice what Baltimore allowed to Peyton Manning and the Broncos in a 19-13 loss last week — and easily moved down the field on the winning drive.
Baltimore had overcome a pair of 10-point deficits, including one after Carr a 29-yard touchdown pass to Michael Crabtree late in the third quarter, to take the lead.
Flacco responded by leading a pair of long drives for a field goal by Justin Tucker and a 7-yard run by Lorenzo Taliaferro that completed a 93-yard drive and tied the game with 7:03 to play.
Flacco relied heavily on the 36-year-old Smith, who had 10 catches for 150 yards but couldn't get a second foot down in the end zone on an off-target pass from Flacco before Tucker's go-ahead field goal with 2:10 to go.
After failing to run a single offensive play in Cincinnati territory in the first three quarters of the opener, the Raiders got off to a fast start on offense. Amari Cooper made up for two early drops by beating Jimmy Smith deep on a 68-yard touchdown on the opening drive.
Cooper had seven catches for 109 yards and Crabtree had nine for 111 as Carr had the big-play receivers on the outside he lacked so often in his rookie season a year ago.
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