Jon Gruden sums up Raiders wild finish vs Ravens ‘I feel like I died and woke up and died again’
You rarely see more insane things go down at the end of a game than what happened between the Raiders and Ravens Monday Night. It was the perfect cap to open the 2021 NFL season and the perfect way to start the Raiders era in Las Vegas with fans in attendance.
The finish to regulation was crazy enough, with the Ravens going up 27-24 with :37 seconds remaining and then the Raiders driving down the field to tie the game back up again to send it to overtime.
That late drive featured the first catch by starting wide receiver Bryan Edwards in the game. And then his second catch right after. Then Edwards had his third catch to start overtime. Then his fourth catch went for 33 yards and appeared to win the game.
The two teams converged on the field to shake hands, Jon Gruden already had the headset on for the postgame interview only to have it all called back because the officials said Edwards was down short of the goal line.
“It was definitely an emotional rollercoaster,” said running back Josh Jacobs, who wasn’t even sure he’d be able to play in the game due to a late illness. “Everybody was running out on the field and we were all celebrating, shaking the other team’s hands, things like that. . . they were telling us like ‘you guys got a good team offensively and defensively and y’all kind of deserved this game’ so when we heard that it wasn’t a touchdown it was like…how is this gonna go.”
How it went was an even more ridiculous rollercoaster.
After a failed QB sneak by Derek Carr, an Alex Leatherwodd false start backed the Raiders to the six-yard-line, which meant going to the air to try and get the score. Willie Snead was unable to get to a high Derek Carr pass which then bounced in the air and was intercepted in the end zone. From euphoria to despair just like that.
The Ravens took over and started to move the ball. Then on third down, Carl Nassib strip sacked Lamar Jackson and the Raiders took over once again, already in scoring range to win it.
They came onto the field to kick the field goal only to be flagged for a delay of game, which led to the offense coming back onto the field. As if everything else wasn’t bad enough, Derek Carr and the offense was on and off the field in seconds.
“I don’t what happened, I turned my back and I was just praying we made it,” Carr said of the field goal unit taking the field. “And I turn around and it’s a delay of game and I say ‘Ok, well he can still make this’ and they’re like ‘get back out there’ and I hear in my headset coach calling personnel so I start running back out there.”
Two plays later, the Ravens came with an all-out blitz, and the Raiders were ready for it. Carr dropped back and threw the ball high in the air as Zay Jones broke wide open for the touchdown. For real this time. From euphoria to disappointment to despair to hope to confusion to euphoria again.
“I feel like I died and woke up and died again,” Jon Gruden said of the last sequence. “I was like a cat. I had multiple lives tonight.”
I can’t imagine a better way to explain it than that. Gruden certainly has a way with words. Derek Carr summed it up another way.
“It feels like my career. It’s like Yes!” Carr said, moving his hand up to signify a high note. “Crap!” Carr said with a laugh while moving his hand down.
In other words, it was all the extreme highs and extreme lows of an seven-year career packed into a few seconds of game time. Which sounds about right, to be honest.
But regardless of the highs and lows, the important part for Carr and the Raiders was that it ended on a high. That’s what makes the rollercoaster worth it in the end. Although no doubt utterly exhausting.
