Josh Jacobs’ historic performance in Raiders’ win came on a hobbled leg

By Case Keefer (contact)

Monday, Nov. 28, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Josh Jacobs walked with a limp for the two days before the Raiders’ Sunday afternoon game at the Seahawks.

The Raiders’ fourth year running back hurt his calf in a walkthrough practice Friday and felt discomfort for the next 36 hours. Then he woke up at the team hotel Sunday morning in nearby Bellevue, Wash., relieved the pain had diminished significantly.

But he still had to prove it to the team’s medical staff, going through a pregame workout two hours before kickoff at Lumen Field to show he could play. Jacobs was cleared but with the understanding that he would be taken out if he tweaked the injury.

“(I’m) looking the guys right in the eyes telling them they’re going to get everything I’ve got out of me,” Jacobs said of his pregame message to his teammates.

Jacobs’ best effort turned out to be better than anyone in Raiders’ team history. He went on to set franchise records for rushing yards, with 229 on 33 carries, and yards from scrimmage, with 303 by virtue of 74 receiving yards tacked onto his rushing total. Jacobs topped it all with the Raiders’ longest play of the year, an 86-yard game-winning touchdown run five minutes into overtime.

Raiders 40, Seahawks 34.

“I was just trying to talk to myself and will my mind to go out there and push through it,” Jacobs said of his mentality after he aggravated the hurt calf late in the game.

Jacobs’ scamper was the most poetic way possible to deliver the Raiders (4-7) to a two-game win streak that revitalizes hope in their season. They hit their low point two weeks ago with a home loss to the Colts, after which quarterback Derek Carr broke down and sobbed up in his postgame news conference.

A large part of Carr’s message called for better effort because of the toll so many players were putting on their bodies just to be on the field. No one is questioning the Raiders’ effort after a second consecutive win in a cold, overtime road game, and no one has given a better display of perseverance than Jacobs against the Seahawks.

“You’ve got your best players out there fighting through injuries and showing the way, not cowering down and being weak the moment you feel discomfort,” wide receiver Davante Adams said. “I think this team knows the difference between being injured and being hurt. You’re going to play hurt all the time. If you can get through something, you’ve got guys like Josh still getting it done at a higher level fighting through stuff.”

Las Vegas had to get through more than injuries to a top a Seattle team coming into the game fresh off a bye and tied at the top of the NFC West standings. The Raiders also had to fight through a disastrous start that saw Carr throw an interception on the first play, and the Seahawks score on the third via a 12-yard rush by rookie running back Kenneth Walker.

Carr threw a second pick and had another potential interception dropped in the end zone in the first quarter but settled down from there. He paced the Raiders as much as Jacobs with 295 passing yards through completing 25 of 36 attempts.

After throwing an 18-yard touchdown to running back Ameer Abdullah in the first quarter, Carr hit a flea flicker over the middle to Mack Hollins for a 30-yard touchdown in the second. That erased the Raiders’ early deficit, making the score 14-13 for less than two minutes before Jacobs added to it.

Linebacker Denzel Perryman came up with his first interception as a Raider on Seahawk quarterback Geno Smith — who finished with 328 yards and two touchdowns on 27-for-37 passing — and returned it 24 yards to the Seahawks’ 30-yard line. The next play, Jacobs took a toss and broke three tackles en route to what was at the time his third longest run of the season.

“That mentality he brings and the mindset in the way he runs and the way he over and over again is finishing, not just downfield but through people,” Carr said. “He’s always finishing forward…it’s that mindset and how hard he’s worked.”

It didn’t take long for Las Vegas to squander the 21-13 lead Jacobs delivered. The defensive backfield — namely cornerback Rock Ya-Sin, who might have had his worst game since coming to the Raiders this season — struggled to cover the Seahawks’ star receiving duo of DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett as the pair combined for 14 receptions and 158 yards.

Ya-Sin extended a late Seahawks’ drive with a pass interference penalty on Lockett, and Smith found Travis Homer three plays later for an 18-yard touchdown. That put Seattle ahead 34-27 with seven minutes to play.

Las Vegas drove into Seattle territory quickly to answer but appeared to lose Jacobs when his calf “got stuck” underneath him on back-to-back plays — a 3-yard run to the 10-yard line and a 7-yard pass along the sideline down after a false start penalty.

“They didn’t want me to finish the game but I kind of convinced them I could go,” Jacobs said.

He only ended up sitting out one play, a five-yard, game-tying touchdown pass tight end Foster Moreau came down with in the corner of the end zone right after the two-minute warning.

Seattle’s shot at a game-winning drive ended with a three-and-out, foiled when edge rusher Maxx Crosby got through for his second sack and fifth quarterback hit of the day on third-and-10.

“You never know when it’s going to be your moment and for me, I believe I’m the best and I work like it every single day and I try to be the best and be there for my teammates,” Crosby said. “In those big moments, I’ve got to step up and make plays and today I got a couple opportunities to do that.”

Crosby wasn’t done coming through in those moments. Despite getting the ball first in overtime, Las Vegas failed to score.

Coach Josh McDaniels said he implemented an “aggressive” strategy against Seattle, but his decisions were the opposite of one. He twice opted to kick field goals in the red zone instead of trying for touchdowns earlier in the game, and then trotted out kicker Daniel Carlson for a 56-yard attempt instead of going for it on 4^th-and-2 to start overtime.

Carlson’s kick ended up right of the uprights, meaning the defense needed to save McDaniels from a loss that would have been largely been pinned on him. They were up to the task as Crosby leveled Smith on another third-down play as the quarterback's arm went forward and the ball fell to the grass.

Crosby had barely caught his breath on the sideline by the time the Seahawks punted and the Raiders ran their next play. That’s when Jacobs raced through an initial hole and then cut to make safety Josh Jones miss en route to his game-winning score.

“I noticed half the defense was looking at Mack because he didn’t know what he was doing on the play lining up and I was just kind of telling him, ‘Just line up,’” Jacobs said of the game-winner. “When I hit the gap, I saw (fullback Jakob Johnson) get a big block and I saw a big hole and just ran as fast as I could.”

Hollins flashed the peace sign as he tailed Jacobs down the field and Crosby ran out from the sideline with such euphoric disregard that he got hit by helmet and thought he lost a front tooth. Crosby’s grill was intact, but Jacobs nearly lost something just as valuable in the aftermath.

“Josh threw the game-winning ball almost into the stands,” Moreau, the next player behind Hollins, said in disbelief. “I went and played golden retriever for a second and had to go grab that. It was ridiculous. What are you doing? It just speaks to him, the kind of person he is. He’s so in the zone he didn’t care about that ball at all. He just wanted to go celebrate with his teammates.”

The pain to Jacobs’ leg had returned by the time he got in the locker room, but he was too distracted by a swarm of cameras and text messages to worry about it in the short term. In the long term, he said it wasn’t a major concern either.

He had the greatest game by a Raiders’ running back in history with the injury still fresh. Imagine what he can do with a week of rehab leading into next week’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Allegiant Stadium where the Raiders will continue to try to prolong their resurgence.

“I felt good even most of the game until the fourth quarter,” Jacobs said. “It’s just a little injury. It’s not anything crazy, not anything that’s going to set me back.”

“I think it will be good by the time next week rolls around.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or