The Oakland Raiders won their fourth straight road game to start the season Sunday as they traveled to the Jacksonville Jaguars and came away with a 33-16 victory.
One play that helped secure the victory was a fourth down play in the fourth quarter. With the Raiders up by 10 and just under four minutes remaining in the game, the Raiders were lined up to punt on fourth-and-24 from their own 38-yard line.
Long snapper Jon Condo’s snap was low, and punter Marquette King was forced to pick it off the ground. By the time he got it he felt the rush coming at him, and instead of trying to punt a ball that likely would have been blocked, King took off down the sideline and gained 27 yards for a first down that essentially sealed the game.
After the game King joked about his speed, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN:
“If they’re rushing, and I take off down the side, they can’t catch me,” King laughed. “So I just decided to turn them wheels on, mang.”
King also talked about what was going through his mind when he took off down the sideline, mainly hoping that head coach Jack Del Rio and general manager Reggie McKenzie wouldn’t be angry at him:
“The first few seconds, I’m just going through the motion; I’m not really thinking,” King said. “But I wanted to make sure I saw orange (from the line of scrimmage marker) and when I got past the orange, I was like, ‘Oh, snap, I’m really running this ball right now.’
“And I just got real light-headed. I was like, ‘Just keep running and if I see someone, just get out of bounds.’ So I don’t get in trouble by Jack and Reggie.”
The win put the Raiders at 5-2 on the season, good enough for at least a first place tie in the AFC West depending on the outcome of Monday night’s game between the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans.