Atlanta Falcons top the league after beating Oakland Raiders 23-20 – NFL Week 6 Recap
Atlanta Falcons continued their winning form with a narrow 23-20 victory in Week 6 against Oakland Raiders on Sunday, October 14, 2012, at Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia.
It was not like the previous five wins for Falcons. They scored their winning points with just one second remaining on the clock, thanks to a remarkable 55-yard field goal from Matt Bryant.
Falcons are currently leading the league with six wins and now head into their bye week.
Falcons head coach Mike Smith was happy for his team leading the standings. However, he admitted that Falcons made a lot of mistakes that could have cost them the game. Smith said:
“Our goal all week was to get through this game and get to our bye week 6-0, that was the mission. Obviously, we didn't want to make it as hard as we did. We made a lot of mistakes in the ball game, Offense, defense, special teams and coaching, but we were
able to overcome all of that.”
Raiders looked better after coming from a bye week. The defence surely did some troubleshooting during the last two weeks as they put up a remarkable show. They intercepted Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan thrice during the game.
Ryan had a rough game completing 24 out of 37 passes for 249 yards. He scored one touchdown.
Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer was outstanding until the final few minutes of the game when he was intercepted by Falcons cornerback Asante Samuel, who returned the ball for 79 yards to score a touchdown. Palmer finished with 23 of 33 for 353 yards along
with a touchdown.
Raiders managed to recover from that blunder through a touchdown from running back Darren McFadden with 40 seconds left on the clock.
Those 40 seconds were enough for Falcons to score their winning points. According to the Associated Press, Raiders head coach Dennis Allen said after the loss:
"You don't want to tell your back to take a knee. We wanted to use up as much time as we possibly could, and unfortunately we gave them a little bit too much."
In the first quarter, both teams showed their defensive strength as they kept the respective quarterbacks from making big plays. Raiders scored a 52-yard field goal in the first quarter.
Falcons scored a touchdown at the start of second quarter with a four-yard pass to wide receiver Roddy White. Raiders then scored another field goal.
Raider took the lead with a 25-yard pass from Palmer to wide receiver Denarius Moore to finish the first half 13-7.
The third quarter was marked by two field goals from Falcons to level the score. Both teams got the opportunity to take the game away, but Bryant’s late field goal left no time for Raiders to return to the game.
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