The Oakland Raiders welcomed the Tennessee Titans to town in Week 14 needing a win to keep pace in the AFC playoff picture. Unfortunately, Oakland was short-handed with two of their best offensive players in Josh Jacobs and Trent Brown missing the game due to injury. It was ultimately the defense that faltered though, resulting in a 42-21 loss at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
The Raiders actually got off to a hot start when Maurice Hurst intercepted Ryan Tannehill on the first drive of the game and returned it all the way to the Titans’ 25. The offense quickly made the most of the turnover as DeAndre Washington punched in a touchdown to give Oakland an early 7-0 lead.
Tennessee quickly answered back with a touchdown drive of their own though, and then after a Raiders punt, they came up with perhaps the play of the game. Tannehill hit rookie wide receiver A.J. Brown in stride, and he got behind the entire defense for a 91-yard touchdown to give the Titans a 14-7 lead.
Oakland needed an answer and got one with Derek Carr hitting Rico Gafford for a wide-open 49-yard touchdown to tie the game. The catch was the first of Gafford’s career.
The only problem though was that the defense couldn’t stop anyone, and the Titans came right back down and scored on another touchdown by Brown. Luckily, the Raiders answered with another touchdown just before the end of the first half to tie the game at 21.
While the Raiders got the ball to start the second half, they couldn’t do anything with it, punting on each of their first three drives. Meanwhile, the Titans offense led by Tannehill and Derrick Henry kept rolling, scoring two more touchdowns to open up a 35-21 lead early in the fourth quarter.
That lead quickly became 42-21 after Darren Waller fumbled and the Titans returned it for a touchdown, essentially putting the game out of reach.
Oakland had a chance to cut it to two scores and put a solid drive together, but Carr wound up throwing the ball away on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line to seal the victory for the Titans. The Raiders dropped to 6-7 with the loss, although they do have some easier matchups to finish out the year.
