The Oakland Raiders won another close game on the road Sunday as they came back to defeat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-24 in overtime.
The win puts the Raiders at 6-2 overall and 5-0 on the road, the best road start for the franchise since 1977.
While the win was a good one, not all was positive for the Raiders on Sunday as they broke an NFL record that they want no part of.
The Raiders had 23 penalties for 200 yards in the game, which is the most penalties all-time and the third most penalty yardage ever. Oakland was flagged on two more occasions, but one was declined and the other was offset by a Tamp Bay penalty, so the Raiders actually could have had 25 total penalties on the day.
According to Scott Bair of CSN Bay Area, Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio was not happy with the penalties; the pre-snap penalties in particular:
“Those kinds of mistakes can not happen,” Del Rio said. “The pre-snap things, mistakes like that, the inability to substitute properly – that is unacceptable. When you’re out there battling and you get called for a hold, it could happen. We want to compete and be aggressive so they will happen, but the other stuff has to be eliminated.”
The Raiders were able to win the game though, so Del Rio is proud of his team for being able to do that:
“I don’t have an answer for you on why there were so many penalties,” Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio said. “…We played through a lot of that. I think the great thing is that we played through it and got the win.”
Quarterback Derek Carr through for a franchise record 513 yards to go along with four touchdowns in the game, including the game-winning touchdown to Seth Roberts on a fourth down play with under two minutes remaining in the overtime period.
Oakland is currently tied with the Denver Broncos atop the AFC West. The two teams will play for the first time this season this upcoming Sunday night in Oakland. The Raiders will need to clean up those penalties if they want to defeat the defending Super Bowl champions.
