Raiders at Patriots final score: New England holds off Oakland 16-9
After the New England Patriots defeated the Minnesota Vikings 30-7 last week, they hoped to prove they turned a corner when they played host to the Oakland Raiders in their home-opener on Sunday afternoon.
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That, however, wasn’t the case. The Patriots used what appears to be a much-improved defense to compensate for a rather inept offense in a 16-9 victory. Tom Brady completed 24-0f-36 passes for 234 yards with a touchdown while rookie Derek Carr was 21-of-34 of 174 yards and an interception. The Patriots could only muster 297 yards of offense but held the Raiders to just 241.
The Raiders opened the scoring in the first quarter after a 13-play, 50-yard drive that resulted in a Sebastian Janikowski field goal.
The Patriots’ offense finally got rolling in the second quarter. They marched 84 yards in 15 plays, taking 6:43 off of the clock. The drive was capped by a six-yard touchdown toss from Brady to Rob Gronkowski. The Patriots got the ball back with just under three minutes to go and looked like they were going to pushed the lead to 14-3, but there was a poor snap and the Patriots settled for a 21-yard Stephen Gostkowski field goal.
The Patriots’ offense again stalled in the third quarter and the Raiders were able to put together a couple of nice drives but both sputtered in Patriots’ territory and they had to settle for two more Janikowski field goals.
The Patriots found some success early in the fourth quarter but Gronkowski dropped a touchdown pass and the Patriots could only muster another field goal, giving them a 13-9 lead. They then added another Gostkowski field goal to give them a touchdown lead with 6:20 to play.
The Raiders made the stop they had to do and drove down into the red zone. A Darren McFadden touchdown was called back for holding and on the next play, Carr’s pass was tipped and fell into the mammoth hands of Patriots’ defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, giving the Patriots the win.
The Patriots will be in Kansas City to take on the Chiefs next Monday night while the Raiders. will get a bye before heading to London take on the Miami Dolphins in two weeks.
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