It was a day to put aside talk of district attorneys, “Outside the Lines,” first-round flops, billboards and petititon drives.
The most stirring Raiders win since they ruled the AFC West seven years ago made Tom Cable look like a prophet instead of a hopeless optimist.
Cable insisted all along there were plays to be made in the passing game as the Raiders went week after week without making them.
Suddenly, there they were, a flood of them in the fourth quarter, to all but knock the defending Super Bowl champions from their throne.
Bruce Gradkowski completed 20 of 33 passes for 308 yards, and saved his best work for the fourth quarter. Gradkowski is the first Raiders quarterback to pass for 300 yards in 33 games, since Daunte Culpepper passed for 344 against Minnesota on Nov. 18, 2007.
The team that had scored one touchdown or less in nine of 11 games came from behind three times on Gradkowski touchdown passes in the fourth quarter. Oakland put more points on the board against the Steelers in the final 12 minutes than they had in any complete game all season long.
Gradkowski’s fourth-quarter numbers: 10 of 16 for 188 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a quarterback rating of 142.7.
To those of us who suggested Gradkowski was no more than a temporary rest stop until JaMarcus Russell was given his job back, we stand corrected. You put Russell in for any reason other than injury over the remaining four games after what transpired against Pittsburgh and the other 52 players will head to the check out line.
It’s the second time in three weeks Gradkowski took his team 80 or more yards with less than two minutes to play in a game the Raiders won. The Raiders tied the Bengals and with a 10-play, 80-yard drive inside of two minutes and then won it when Cincinnati fumbled the ensuing kickoff. The Steelers were beaten on a 10-play, 88-yard march in which the Raiders had no time outs.
Close your eyes and it was Rich Gannon out there, evading the rush, scrambling eight yards for a first down on third-and-3, and throwing up a duck that Louis Murphy somehow came down with among three defenders for a 23-yard gain.
Except Gannon never threw three touchdown passes in the third quarter. The last player to do that? Guy by the name of Stabler, on Dec. 3, 1979, as the Raiders erased a 35-14 deficit to beat the New Orleans Saints, 42-35.
“They left us too much time,” Gradkowski told television interviewers following the game. Gradkowski had never passed for 225 yards in a game or thrown three touchdown passes in a game (let alone a quarter).
Gradkowski also had what a winning quarteback sometimes needs _ luck. He threw an interception directly to Steelers rookie Joe Burnett with 41 seconds to play. Burnett dropped it. The next pass was the 23-yard pop fly to Murphy which got the Raiders to the 17.
“It seemed like an eternity,” Murphy told reporters afterward. “It was up there forever. A lot of leaders just turned to me and said, `Murph, we need a big play.’ ‘
Murphy’s four catches for 128 yards was the first time in 33 games that a Raiders wide receiver broke 100 yards. Ronald Curry had 120 yards in receptions against Minnesota. All his catches and yards came in the last 5:42.
– The Raiders were very good in the first half defensively, and utilized a lot of rookie second-round pick Mike Mitchell. That increased the pressure on Tyvon Branch, who spent less time in the box and more in coverage. He was victimized on back-to-back throws by Ben Roethlisberger on Pittsburgh’s first scoring drive of 34 and 27 yards. The second one, to Santonio Holmes at the pylon, was simply a perfect pass.
A delay of game penalty didn’t hurt because Ryan Clark drew an unnecessary roughness penalty with a head-to-head shot on an incomplete pass to Johnnie Lee Higgins, putting Oakland at the 11.
– Bruce Gradkowski Sr., talking on the KPIX postgame show following the game, was overcome with emotion in an interview with Kim Coyle. Nice moment.
– The Raiders simply refuse to do anything the easy way, which in this case made the win even more remarkable. They gave up an 83-yard kickoff return to Stefan Logan to open the game, were victimized for 225 yards of Steelers offense on six snaps (and 176 yards on the other 42), twice gave up fourth-quarter following touchdowns and lost both center Samson Satele and left guard Robert Gallery, forcing them to finish it out with Langston Walker at left guard and Chris Morris at center.
The win speaks volumes for Cable’s ability to keep a team interested and capable of playing late in the season when a season has already gone south.
– Things started to go south for the Steelers when coach Mike Tomlin, who promised to “unleash hell” in December following last week’s overtime loss to Kansas City, opted to have field goal kicker Jeff Reed attempt a 53-yard field goal rather than punt the Raiders deep into their own territory. Never mind that Reed has never made a kick longer than 50 yards, and the direction he was kicking is notoriously difficult because of swirling winds.
Tomlin is one of the game’s best coaches, and in one way the move made complete sense. He was playing against a team that hadn’t scored more than 20 points all year and didn’t have a touchdown in the game. There was absolutely no reason to believe the Raiders were up to the task of moving 57 yards and actually scoring a touchdown.
Except that’s exactly what they did, with Chaz Schilens (or Chaz Scheelins, according to CBS analyst Bill Cowher) scoring on a 17-yard touchdown pass.
Tomlin had unleased hell, all right. Only not in the way he imagined.
– The Raiders gained 396 yards, four yards shy of a 400-yard game, last accomplished on Oct. 23, 2005. That’s 70 games ago.
– Had to love that pitch on third-and-2 to Darren McFadden on the Raiders’ first scoring drive, getting their best perimeter runner to the perimeter. Feel free to use it again. Like at least three times per game.
– Johnnie Lee Higgins will hear about giving up a deep route in the fourth quarter, but caught four passes for 63 yards. That’s more yards and twice as many passes as injured rookie Darrius Heyward-Bey has caught in a single game through 11 starts. Heyward-Bey sustained a foot injury in Friday’s practice and was inactive.
Postgame wrap - Inside the Oakland Raiders - A look inside the world of the highly classified Oakland Raiders from the writers of Bay Area News Group
