Raiders never fail in OT
It’s remarkable that the Las Vegas Raiders have gone to overtime four times in the 2021 regular season.
That means nearly a quarter of their games have gone to an an extra period. However, it is beyond remarkable that Las Vegas actually won all four of their overtime games in 2021. It’s actually mind boggling.
The Raiders’ latest overtime heroic was the most amazing of all and and will go down as one of the most exciting regular season games in recent team history. The Raiders withheld a furious late comeback by the Los Angeles Chargers to win 35-32 in on the final play of overtime Sunday night to send the team to the playoffs … and to send the Chargers home. Perfect.
For the Raiders, this is somehow becoming routine. Despite all the pressure involved Sunday night, their overtime success this season helped calm them when it continued most.
“We have been in this situation before, right,” Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia said. “Derek [Carr] has been in two-minute situations before. He has been in four-minute situations before. Our defense has had to come up with stops towards the end of the game. We just can’t say enough about how this team prepares and going into the game playing like that. I just know that they believe in each other when they go out there. They don’t blink. They gave up plays, a touchdown at the end. We didn’t get the drive that we wanted. They don’t blink. They reset, recover quickly and the next unit goes back out there.”
Carr, who has been paramount in Las Vegas’ overtime success this season, didn’t blink when the Chargers sent the game to overtime in the final seconds of regulation after trailing 29-14 earlier in the fourth quarter,
“You know what? I’m almost numb to the rollercoaster,“ Carr said. “I had someone come up to me, Nate Peterman, he came up to me and is like ‘Dude, my freaking stomach during that.’ This 15-point lead, then it’s gone, then we go score, then they score, and it’s unbelievable. Of course, it’s what’s on the line. I don’t know, there is something in my heart that maybe I’ve seen too many hard times,
“I’ve seen some good times here, and I just kind of stay like that. I’m thankful for that cause I’m not going to lie, I told myself that I wasn’t going to watch those games this morning, and that is the most stressful thing I’ve ever done is watching those games. I’m wrong for that, I shouldn’t watch those. When I’m in it, it’s just like this, it’s like this is my job. It’s either going to workout or it’s not, but I’m going to give it my best every time. You can tell I’m definitely thankful that it worked out this time.”