Raiders Get First Win With 13-9 Victory Over Philadelphia

NFL News - October 19th, 2009 - Written by John

The Oakland Raiders finally got their first win of the season on Sunday as they squeaked by the Philadelphia Eagles 13-9. The defensive play for the Raiders was the key to the game. They held the Eagles, 2nd in the league in scoring, to a season low 9 points and 283 yards. The Raiders came into the game with the 30th ranked rushing defense, but they held the Eagles to just 67 yards on the ground. Philadelphia had only 14 rushing plays and they abandoned the rush and went to their passing attack. Oakland head coach Tom Cable was finally proud of the effort his team gave on Sunday.

"We went out and threw a fight on somebody and said, 'Enough. Let's play,'" coach Tom Cable said. "That's all you can say. There's no magic words or anything like that."

The Philadelphia Eagles got on the board first late in the first quarter on a 45 yard field goal from David Akers. The Raiders wasted no time in responding as quarterback JaMarcus Russell found tight end Zach Miller on an 85 yard touchdown pass that was aided by 2 key blocks from Louis Murphy. Place kicker Sebastian Janikowski would then hit a 29 yard field goal to put the Raiders out in front 10-3 midway through the second quarter. With six seconds remaining in the half, Akers would bring the Eagles to within 4 on his 43 yard field goal.

After a scoreless third quarter, both teams would add field goals in the fourth. The Raiders had a chance to get the come-from-behind win with 2:14 remaining. The Eagles were down on the Oakland 44 yard line with a fourth-and-4 situation in which Donavan McNabb missed on his pass attempt. Two missed field goal by Akers proved to be costly in this game. McNabb finished the game with 269 yards passing, but the Eagles were held out of the end zone for the first time all year and gave up 6 sacks in the losing effort.

"I'm embarrassed by the way we came out here and played. We're a much better football team," McNabb said.

Russell led the Raiders' offense with 224 yards passing and 1 touchdown. Running back Justin Fargas did an excellent job of helping Oakland control the clock with his 87 yards rushing. Oakland was fueled by their embarrassing performance last week against the Giants, a game in which New York linebacker Antonio Pierce said it felt like they had just played a scrimmage following the game. Murphy's blocks on Oakland's only touchdown against the Eagles proved to be huge in their win and was motivated by Pierce's comment.

"That gave me extra fuel," Murphy said. "You have to look yourself in the mirror and man up. His comments were true. We played flat. We didn't play with any emotion. This game was totally different. We took those comments to heart."

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