Linebacker Aaron Curry was throwing hooks and jabs at the goal post, and the crowd of 59,069 at O.co Coliseum was coming unhinged.
Tommy Kelly’s sack and strip of quarterback Matthew Stafford led to Curry’s 6-yard romp into the end zone and a 27-14 lead for the Raiders over the Detroit Lions with 7:47 to play on Sunday.
The updates from Denver, where the Broncos were being handled by the New England Patriots, fed a festive atmosphere, with fans and players realizing a division title was back in play.
Then it all went horribly wrong. In the final five minutes, Stafford, with considerable help from wide receiver Calvin Johnson, directed touchdown drives of 71 and 98 yards.
The final indignity in the Raiders’ 28-27 defeat was the sight of Ndamukong Suh getting a piece of Sebastian Janikowski’s 65-yard field-goal attempt on the final play, with the Lions celebrating on Oakland’s field with a 9-5 record and an inside track at an NFC wild-card berth.
The blocked kick was the culmination of an epic collapse that could be an important and painful chapter when the story of the 2011 season is complete.
A little less than a year ago, former coach Tom Cable cited the progress of a .500 season with the declaration, “We’re not losers anymore.”
Another dance with a .500 record is not what coach Hue Jackson had in mind.
“Right now I’m a .500 football coach, at 7-7,” Jackson said. “And that’s not who I am. I’m very disappointed by it. I’m disappointed for our fans and this organization and our players.”
Curry, his mood dampened considerably since the goal-post bashing that resulted in a 15-yard penalty on the ensuing kickoff, lamented the last two drives during which the Lions gained 169 yards and scored two touchdowns in just 17 plays.
“We just knew we had to go out there and get the stop, and we didn’t do it,” Curry said. “As far as I’m concerned, we just didn’t get the job done. If that’s the best we’ve got, we have to get better.”
Stafford completed 29 of 52 passes for 391 yards and four touchdowns, with Johnson catching nine passes for a career-high 214 yards and two scores, a 51-yard streak for Detroit’s first score and a 6-yard snag in the back of the end zone to give Detroit its last touchdown with 39 seconds remaining.
The last two drives offset some good work by quarterback Carson Palmer, who completed 32 of 40 passes for 367 yards and a touchdown and completed passes to eight receivers.
Yet Palmer will think most about two of the passes he missed, a fourth-and-1 gamble beyond the reach of Denarius Moore in the end zone from the Oakland 24 in the first quarter, and a third-and-3 pass with a flat trajectory that glanced off the hands of Chaz Schilens with 2:32 to go and the Raiders at the Lions’ 48.
With Detroit having closed to within 27-21 on Stafford’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Titus Young and the Raiders forced to punt after the Palmer-to-Schilens disconnect, punter Shane Lechler rolled a punt 46 yards to the Detroit 2-yard line.
The Lions had 98 yards to go and 2:14 to get there, with only the two-minute warning to stop the clock.
Stafford got warmed up with an 8-yard pass to Nate Burleson on third-and-2, then followed it up with bullet thrown off his back foot to Johnson along the sideline for a 21-yard gain to the 39.
After a lengthy review upheld the catch, Stafford cut loose with a pop fly deep down the middle of the field with Johnson guarded in a Cover 2 defense by middle linebacker Rolando McClain and safety Jerome Boyd, neither of whom would be considered among Oakland’s top downfield defenders.
The Raiders defenders seemed to freeze at the sight of the ball in the air, and Johnson came down with the catch at the 13-yard line. A holding penalty pushed the Lions back to the 23, but a pass interference penalty on Stanford Routt set up the Lions at the 6.
Two plays later, Stafford found Johnson for the touchdown.
“We knew we had to win that one, we fought hard and let it slip,” safety Tyvon Branch said. “These are the games you remember, and they hurt for a long time.
