NFL

Raiders Have Hope, But No Victories

Oakland stumbles again, this time to Arizona, to drop to 0-6 as the only winless team in the NFL

After watching his Raiders almost topple the Chargers last week, new head coach Tony Sparano went into Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals with hope.

“If those guys can give me that kind of effort going forward here, this thing is going to turn,” he said.

Well, not this week.

The Raiders lost again, this time by a 24-13 score to visiting Arizona, dropping to 0-6 this season, their 12th consecutive loss. And, after Jacksonville’s victory over Cleveland earlier Sunday, the Raiders now rank as the NFL’s only winless team.

The Raiders spotted Arizona a 14-0 lead, and it proved too much to overcome.

With just over four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, down by just eight points, the Raiders still had a chance to get the ball back if they could make a third-down stop. But on a third-and-8 from their own 41, Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer hit a wide-open John Brown for 22 yards to the Raiders’ 37. Then, just over three minutes left, the Cardinals converted another third-and-8, with Palmer hitting Andre Ellington for 10 yards.

The Cardinals held onto the ball long enough tack on a 41-yard field goal to increase their lead to 24-13 and lock up the game with just 33 seconds remaining.

As the San Francisco Chronicle’s Vic Tafur noted, the Raiders had come in dead last in the NFL in third-down defense, with successful stops just 51 percent of the time. Those two conversions by Arizona made them successful on 9-of-14 Sunday. With the game still in reach, the defense didn’t get the job done when it needed to.

After the Cardinals built their 14-0 lead, Oakland came back to make it a game on a short touchdown run by Darren McFadden and two Sebastian Janikowski field goals.

For the second straight game, rookie quarterback Derek Carr showed promise, completed 16-of-28 for 173 yards, including a 55-yard completion to a streaking Brice Butler. But Oakland couldn’t come up with key third-down conversions on the drives that ended in field goals, and the defense couldn’t contain Palmer (22-of-31 for 253 yards and two TDs), or the 1-2 running back duo of Ellington and Stepfan Taylor (128 yards rushing).

As the hopeful Sparano had said before the game, “this thing is a marathon.” He knows it may take time. But, he said, “We’re going to get it right.”

Until then, the 0-6 Raiders are now in the lead for the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft. But, opportunity awaits.

Next Sunday, the Raiders travel to face the Browns – who lost to the Jaguars this week.

If there’s a winnable game on the schedule, this is it.

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