OAKLAND, Calif. — This was supposed to be a celebratory occasion for Raiders fans, who had one last chance to watch their team play in Oakland before moving to Las Vegas in 2020. But the last NFL game in the Coliseum seemed to mean just as much to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who snapped a five-game losing streak with Chris Conley touchdowns on their final two possessions to pull out a 20-16 victory.
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“I told our players that it was going to be a hostile crowd and we need to use that energy to help us win,” Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said. “It was the last game here. We talked about it with our players a lot. The year hasn’t gone well for us. Today we will at least have something that you might tell your grandchildren about one day. It is a pretty good memory.”
Leonard Fournette, despite a tough day rushing the ball (15 carries for 42 yards), made a couple of key plays in the Jaguars’ final two drives. He also experienced the ferocity of a crowd that has loudly supported the Raiders throughout their last season in Oakland and said it fueled him.
“It was cool. It’s crazy. People yelling at you, calling me all type of sh*t every two minutes. I enjoy it, to be honest,” Fournette said.
“It’s been tough (this season), especially from the mental standpoint of the game. Just coming in after loss after loss. Just getting that monkey off our back today, it felt good.”
The Jaguars showed little resistance early, allowing a 40-yard touchdown pass to Tyrell Williams on the Raiders’ opening drive. After getting a field goal on their first possession, the Jaguars managed just one more first down in their next five series and fell behind 16-3.
“Things didn’t go really well for us,” Marrone said. “I thought defensively in the first half we were just kind of hanging on.”
The Coliseum crowd sensed a glorious farewell to Oakland was in the offing, but the Raiders couldn’t get anything going offensively as the Jaguars shut them out in the second half and were able to get to the quarterback consistently with four sacks — two from Yannick Ngakoue — and five hits on Derek Carr.
That set the stage for Gardner Minshew to lead the way, although he received help from some key Raiders penalties in the fourth quarter. An offsides call on blitzing Raiders cornerback Curtis Riley set up a third and 3, and the Jaguars needed two Fournette carries to convert, which he barely did on fourth and 1. Trayvon Mullen was called for pass interference on the next play, and six plays later Minshew found Conley for the Jaguars’ first touchdown on a 6-yard pass over the middle.
Jaguars wide receiver Chris Conley stiff-arms Raiders safety Lamarcus Joyner in the second half. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
The Raiders then drove into field-goal range, but Daniel Carlson missed two field-goal attempts. His first was a 50-yard try that went wide left but was negated by a running-into-the-kicker penalty on Parry Nickerson. Carlson then sent another wide left from five yards closer, and the Jaguars made the Raiders pay.
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Minshew burned the Raiders a couple of times with his legs over the last two scoring drives, but in the final minute, he was locked on Conley. On second and goal from the 4 and the Jaguars within a chip-shot field goal of sending the game into overtime, he targeted Conley over the middle again. His first pass was deflected, but on the next play, he connected with Conley with 31 seconds remaining to put the Jaguars on top.
“I don’t think that this team has really quit in any situation where we’ve been down this year,” said Conley in a giddy visiting locker room. “I think there was just a difference in perspective today. The guys didn’t panic. They realized what the point differential was and how many possessions it would take to get us in back in the game.”
“Magical,” said Abry Jones of the winning touchdown. “I don’t know what to say. I just knew we were going to win.”
The Raiders had a chance in the final seconds, but both of Carr’s Hail Mary throws failed. The Raiders left the Coliseum to an ugly scene, with fans booing and throwing everything from water bottles to boxes of nachos into the end zone as Carr made his way over to the Black Hole, while the Jaguars celebrated an improbable win they’ll always remember.
“It was awesome,” Minshew said. “It’s a piece of football history. It’ll be like an Aflac trivia question in like 20 years.”
“It was awesome,” said Gardner Minshew when I mentioned that the Jags seemed just as motivated as the Raiders to win the last game in Oakland. “It’s a piece of football history. It’ll be like an Aflac trivia question in like 20 years. It’s definitely cool to be a part of that.” pic.twitter.com/PdK35xZmoI
— Bay Area Sports Guy (@BASportsGuy) December 16, 2019
“Definitely needed this,” Jones said. “I told guys before we hit the field. I mean, this is 100 years of the NFL, I don’t want to be sitting on the couch 20, 30 years later, and I see on ESPN Classic because they’re playing the last time in the Coliseum and we out there getting our ass beat. So I told them, I’m not trying to be that guy on the couch.”
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Early on, this looked like a game that might lead to Marrone — whose seat has grown hotter with each loss during the team’s rough late-season stretch — losing his job perhaps even earlier than season’s end. However, his team’s refusal to quit allowed them to shrug off yet another underwhelming offensive performance.
“I got a question last week about, hey do you think that anyone is quitting, which is natural when a team is losing football games. People are going to ask that, but I really haven’t seen it in the team,” Marrone said. “That is a credit to the coaches and the players. We just wanted to keep it tight and get an opportunity to win the game, and that was what we did.”
Throughout the week, everyone from Jon Gruden to Carr to rookie running back Josh Jacobs — who rushed 24 times for 89 yards after missing last week’s game because of a broken shoulder — made it clear that this last game in Oakland carried with it almost playoff-like significance.
Quarterback Derek Carr greets fan Mark Acasio (aka Gorilla Rilla) in the Black Hole after the Raiders’ final game at the Coliseum. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
While Raiders fans will look at this as another disappointing collapse that seemed to encapsulate all of the team’s struggles during its second stint in Oakland, the way the Jaguars came back said just as much about them.
“Right now, technically there’s nothing to be playing for in terms of the postseason,” Conley said. “But really, everybody has to look at themselves to a man and realize the competitor in them. If you realize that competitor inside yourself, then you go out there and you give it everything you’ve got. You go out there to win. Not for a trophy, but you do it for your teammates. You do it for the name on the back of your jersey and your family. Guys have done a really good job in recognizing that.”
(Top photo of Chris Conley celebrating his winning touchdown: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Steve Berman is a staff editor and writer for The Athletic. He edits MLB content and focuses his writing on Bay Area sports, with an emphasis on local media. Before joining The Athletic he founded Bay Area Sports Guy, which became the top independent site in the region, and covered local sports for Bay Area News Group and NBC Sports Bay Area. Follow Steve on Twitter @BASportsGuy
