A few weeks ago, Marcus Mariota hadn’t even been active for a game this season for the Raiders. That’s not where most people thought he would be after signing a lucrative two-year deal with the Raiders this offseason to make him one of the higher-paid backups in the league.
Just a few weeks ago, Mariota was finally given the nod over Nathan Peterman as Derek Carr’s primary backup. Though that didn’t mean he would be seeing the field anytime soon. But as it often happens, that changes in an instant.
On the Raiders’ final play of the first quarter, Derek Carr rolled out right looking to find an open man in the end zone and pulled up lame. He immediately grabbed his groin and hobbled off the field. His day was done.
Carr was taken to the locker room and shortly thereafter, Mariota did something he hadn’t done in nearly a year. He began warming up to enter an NFL game.
The former second overall pick in the 2015 draft had been given up for dead by the Titans last season. They benched him in favor of Ryan Tannehill who went on to win Comeback Player of the Year (as it happens, it was after the Dolphins had given up on him).
Mariota just wasn’t the player he once was. And no teams were looking to sign him as a starter. The Raiders weren’t necessarily looking at him as a starter either. They had Derek Carr in place and signed Mariota despite seemingly knowing he wasn’t ready to play. Or at very least they were willing to take that chance. Something of which Mariota is extremely grateful.
“To be truthful, it’s been a long journey,” said Mariota. I’ve been through kind of everything. From injuries to surgeries to mental lapses and the confidence thing. I just truly appreciate the Raiders and the entire organization for helping me through that. I was trying to find my way again and they gave me an opportunity to take some time and they were patient with me and I just appreciate the fact that they were willing to do that.”
Come the second quarter against the Chargers, with the Raiders still fighting for a playoff spot, Mariota took the field with those hopes on his shoulders. This is why he was brought here. This moment. To come in and keep the team afloat.
He did that and more. On his first drive, he went three for three with 70 yards and a touchdown. The TD pass was a thing of beauty. A 35-yard dime dropped right into the arms of tight end Darren Waller. It gave the Raiders a 10-7 lead.
The Chargers would fight back to take the halftime lead; something that was not altogether difficult against the Raiders’ beaten up defense. But come the third quarter, Mariota came back out and led the Raiders on two consecutive touchdown drives to tie it up at 24-24. The final TD was Mariota diving over the line for the score. The kind of mobility he had been known for at Oregon and early in his career and he showed a lot of in this game.
Then, with the Raiders in field goal range, approaching the two-minute warning, and needing only to drain some clock and a score to put it away, the call was for Mariota to throw it. He threw behind Zay Jones and it was intercepted by Chris Harris who was off to the races. He got 52 yards down the field before Mariota himself caught up to him and made the tackle.
A stop by the defense and a sack would have Michael Badgley line up for a 51-yard field goal and miss it, allowing the game to head to overtime.
The Raiders got the ball first and Mariota drove them down the field again, putting them in first and goal at the four-yard line. Mariota had run the read-option with great success in the game, but the calls that came in were for two runs up the middle and a run-pass option. Mariota went to pass it and found no one open. It fell incomplete on a pass to Alec Ingold that would have been short of the end zone anyway. They settled for a field goal.
After that, the Chargers drove for the game-winning touchdown. Putting a damper on what could have been a nice comeback story for Mariota who fought his way back to this point.
“I just loved being out there again. It was fun to play,” said Mariota, noting his disappointment that it wasn’t accompanied by a win.
“It was cool for me to get to experience playing again, you know not playing for a while, and to have his (Derek Carr’s) support, to have coach Gruden make that transition easy for me meant a lot. It’s the reason we had some success.”
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