Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, playing with his fourth NFL team and playing because of an injury to Jake Locker, looked like a star as he completed his first seven passes on the final drive. After two incompletions, Tennessee faced third-and-goal from the Oakland 10. Fifteen seconds remained on the clock. One more defensive stop, and the game was likely headed to overtime.
But Justin Hunter dragged cornerback Phillip Adams into the left side of the end zone, and fellow wide receiver Kendall Wright cut underneath against slot corner Tracy Porter. Fitzpatrick found Wright at about the 1, and he was able to gather in the ball and shimmy across the goal line for the winning touchdown.
"I stepped on the defender's toes and got out, and Ryan made a great throw," Wright explained. "All I had to do was look it in and get in the end zone. Before the start of that drive we said we weren't going to let Rob Bironas come out here and kick a field goal to tie it up. We wanted to go down there and score seven."
"Just got to converge on it," Raiders free safety Charles Woodson lamented. "Somebody's got to make a play in that situation."
The Raiders defense has become more aggressive under head coach Dennis Allen and coordinator Jason Tarver, but they played it safe on that critical play, deploying zone coverage and rushing just three men.
"Tracy was fine," Allen said, defending Porter. "It's a tough route for the coverage we were in. I thought they did a good job executing. They had a nice play up which made it tough for us to be able to defend. If I had it to do over again I'd have been more aggressive right there and come after them. Put that one on me."
The Titans not only went 80 yards to score the go-ahead touchdown. They ate six minutes off the clock, denying the Raiders any real shot at a comeback.
Oakland fell to 4-7, and now holds sole possession of last place in the AFC West.
It was a crushing result for the Raiders and their fans, who had watched undrafted rookie Matt McGloin — making his first home start at quarterback — lead the team to what looked like the winning score. It took the Raiders just five plays to go 75 yards midway through the fourth quarter. Streater helped the cause with a couple of leaping catches, and McGloin finished it when he found fullback Marcel Reece wide open for a 27-yard touchdown.
"It was Marcel on a linebacker, and any quarterback will take that matchup any time," McGloin said.
McGloin completed 19 of 32 passes for 260 yards, and was efficient after throwing an ill-advised interception early in the second quarter. Allen said he had done enough to earn another start, at Dallas on Thursday.
The Raiders did a lot of good things Sunday, but they were done in by one fatal flaw on each side of the ball. On offense, they had a hard time converting opportunities into points. Reece's was their only touchdown of the day. Before that, the Raiders settled for six Sebastian Janikowski field-goal attempts, and he missed two of them.
On defense, Oakland simply couldn't get the Titans off the field when given the chance. Tennessee converted 10 of 18 third-down plays, mostly on passes by Fitzpatrick. The quarterback eluded multiple sacks, and Hunter (109) and Wright (103) both wound up with more than 100 receiving yards.
"It's just frustrating after a while, because as a defense we feel like we have them and we just let them go," safety Brandian Ross said. "They're in third-and-short, third-and-8, third-and-long, it seemed like they always just got behind us somehow."
The Tennessee receivers did most of their damage on simple crossing routes, constantly dragging Porter, Adams and Mike Jenkins across the field.
"It wasn't like they was giving us anything we hadn't seen on film," Woodson said. "Just credit it to not making a play."
The worst piece of pass defense came right after halftime, with the Raiders clinging to a 9-6 lead following an all-field-goal first half. On third-and-2 (of course) from the Tennessee 46, Hunter broke open downfield, reeled in Fitzpatrick's pass and ran circles around Adams and Ross to complete a 54-yard touchdown.
Perhaps fortunately, the Raiders don't have long to dwell on the one that got away, not with a short week before the Thanksgiving game at Dallas.
"You gotta throw it all behind you," Woodson said. "This game is a tough one, it's a hard one to swallow. But this game (in Dallas) is gonna get up on us quick."
You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.
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