Peyton Manning Wins
Oakland Again Comes So Close
What is it like to watch a properly officiated pro football game in person? People of Oakland - call your out-of-town friends and ask. Generations of Raider Nation may never know.
Peyton Manning and his Indianapolis Colts get their first regular season win in Oakland since 1971, barely outlasting the Silver and Black, 21-14.
Manning threw 39 passes, completed 22 of them, amassed 276 yards and despite being intercepted once, he also threw for one of the Colts' two touchdowns. It came with 4:50 to play in the fourth quarter, as the Raiders were clinging to a 14-13 lead. Indy's successful two-point conversion gave them the 7-point victory.
Offensively, the game was a 14-14 tie, as the Colts first TD was on special teams. Cornerback T.J. Rushing took a punt 90 yards for a score in the first quarter.
The Raiders had the chance to tie things up at 21-all in the closing seconds of the game. They drove down to the Indianapolis 16 yard line. A near completion to wide receiver Jerry Porter that missed at the 10 appeared to many at McAfee Coliseum to be a pass interference situation on members of the Colts' secondary.
"If the Raiders were on defense, they would have called interference," says David Yelkey of Sacramento, a Raider season ticket holder for nearly a decade. "I just get so sick of this."
It can't be ignored. Apocryphal referee calls have followed the Raiders like fleas on a collarless cat. They've afflicted Oakland in the recent as well as the distant past. 2006's "forward pass" in San Diego, the 2001 postseason "Tuck Rule" play in New England, the 1977 AFC Championship Game, 1972's "Immaculate Reception" and others are a few scattered examples.
"The games are fixed," says James Richard, a lifelong Oakland and East Bay resident. "It's a worldwide conspiracy. They all contribute to fool the myopic. But I'm from Oakland, they can't beat us. Football is a game."
On the bright side, the Raiders' 2007 campaign has a pair of silver stars on it that none of the teams since 2003 have had: two AFC West wins with a chance for a third coming December 30th. The Raiders won at Kansas City on November 25th, snapping four separate losing streaks. One week later they came home and ended a five game misery skid against Denver. They have a chance to end an 8-game slide against San Diego on the last day of the regular season, not before playing their first ever game in Jacksonville on the December 23rd.
Meanwhile, the defending Super Bowl champions are sitting pretty, with the AFC's number two seed all locked up and two games still to play. The Colts earn a first-round playoff bye with their win in Oakland, and now head home to play Houston.
They aim to repeat as Super Bowl champions in early 2008.
Manning went 22/39, 276 yards and 1 TD.
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T.J. Rushing scores on a 90-yard punt return.
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Manning hopes the postseason is again good to him.
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Ronald Curry scored the Raiders passing TD.
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WR Jerry Porter (#84) was closely covered all day.
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