Can’t Contain ‘the Condor’: Crosby flies in Raiders’ first win of the season

By Case Keefer (contact)

Monday, Oct. 3, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Maxx Crosby glided off the field ahead of all his teammates in a fashion that did justice to his nickname, “The Condor”, after a fourth-down stop Sunday afternoon at Allegiant Stadium.

The Raiders had virtually sealed their 32-23 Week 4 victory over the Broncos when a pass by quarterback Russell Wilson fell incomplete with 1:44 to go, but the edge rusher wasn’t ready to rest. He kept soaring all the way to end of the bench, where he didn’t sit down.

Instead, Crosby started migrating slowly back towards Josh McDaniels so he could be the first to congratulate the first-year coach on his first victory in silver and black as quarterback Derek Carr kneeled to drain the clock.

“I’m fired up for him,” Crosby said of McDaniels after the game. “There’s a lot of pressure on us. Scheme-wise and everything, we’re just trying to make it work. From the outside, people don’t really see that. There’s a lot going on — new philosophies and the coaches are trying to do it right. When it’s not going our way, the pressure and all that starts adding up. I thought Josh did an incredible job bringing the team together this week.”

It was Carr who eventually presented McDaniels the game ball in the locker room, but Crosby might have been the most responsible for delivering a victory to snap a disastrous 0-3 start to the season. The Raiders’ offense came alive when it mattered led by running back Josh Jacobs, who had a career-high 144 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries, and kicker Daniel Carlson made all four of his field-goal attempts.

But it was the defense kept the Broncos at bay for nearly the entire second half, including forcing three straight three-and-outs and four consecutive punts, and there’s no question where the attack starts on that side of the ball. It’s with Crosby, whose legendary effort level was in full force against the rival Broncos on Sunday.

The Raiders’ $100 million man had sacks on back-to-back drives to open the second half, two more credited hits on Wilson and four tackles for loss.

“I mean, do you see Maxx on every play?” Jacobs said with a laugh. “I’ve never met a guy that has a higher motor that wants to win. You just see it, you feel the energy. He’s special, man.”

Crosby was quick to reciprocate the compliments and praise Jacobs, calling his 2019 draft-mate “a damn baller.” Jacobs actually looked like Crosby quite often Sunday, spinning away from some Broncos and trucking over others.

He scored his first touchdown in the second quarter after breaking through a pair of arm tackles and then lowering his shoulder to knock cornerback Ronald Darby into the end zone. Jacobs’ longest run of the season came in the third quarter when he broke at least four tackles on a 42-yard counter where a pair of defenders ripped off parts of his undershirt.

“That’s like the third shirt I went through this year,” Jacobs said. “So we might have to do something about that.”

The one time the Raiders’ defense faltered in the second half, Jacobs picked it up. Las Vegas had just gone up by two scores, 25-16, early in the fourth quarter on Carlson’s final field goal but Denver struck back in less than three minutes of game time.

K.J. Hamler got behind Raider safeties Tre’von Moehrig and Duron Harmon and caught a 55-yard pass from Wilson in the middle of the field down to three-yard line. Wilson ran the touchdown in himself, giving him one rushing score to go with two passing, on the next play.

With the Raiders’ lead down to two points, McDaniels wanted to be aggressive to come away with points on the next drive. He stuck with Jacobs as the engine, and the running back came through again.

He made several plays on the possession including a second rushing touchdown that wasn’t unlike the first as he ran up the middle through at least three sets of arms for a 7-yard score.

“That’s complementary football,” Crosby said. “We had to go down there and call game.”

“Complementary football” is a McDaniels catchphrase, and something the Raiders’ defense achieved throughout. The Las Vegas offense was decent on Sunday — averaging 5.2 yards per play — but continued to struggle in the red zone at a 2-for-6 efficiency clip.

The other side of the ball picked up the slack as the Raiders found their first defensive touchdown in 42 games — the longest NFL streak in 40 years according to the Associated Press.

Denver was driving late in the second quarter before Harmon put a hit on running back Melvin Gordon, who was fighting for extra yards, and forced a fumble. Las Vegas cornerback Amik Robertson gathered the ball and tapped into the playmaking ability that made him a rising prospect ahead of the 2020 NFL Draft, weaving in and out of traffic for a 68-yard touchdown return.

“That’s why you saw me holding the ball like talking to it saying, ‘I missed you so much,’” Robertson said. “Coming out of college, when you’re always having your hands on the ball and you get to the league, the game kind of speeds up and it takes a while for you to adjust. It was a big moment.”

Robertson’s first professional touchdown gave the Raiders a 16-10 lead, and they never fell behind for the rest of the game. The 5-foot-8 Louisiana Tech product came alive after his friend, Broncos receiver Jerry Jeudy, caught a 32-yard pass on him in the first half and motioned that he was too short.

McDaniels said that was a show of the type of competitive spirit he loves about Robertson. It’s the same competitive spirit he’s preached to his team and finally saw come through.

McDaniels was thrilled to notch his first victory, but said it held no extra meeting coming against the franchise that hired him for his first NFL head-coaching job.

“I don’t look at them with any ill will,” McDaniels said of the Broncos. “They gave me a great opportunity at a young age. If anything, I look at it like it was a blessing because I learned so much from it. It made me better.”

The Raiders had repeatedly expressed a united front behind McDaniels despite a three-game losing streak to start his tenure. Crosby was among team leaders who spoke up in a meeting going into the game against the Broncos and tried to lead his teammates on the field with his tireless energy level.

But he said the toughness and mindset the Raiders demonstrated on Sunday originated with McDaniels.

“We had nothing but great conversations after the Tennessee game and it was nothing but positive, focused on solutions and I feel like we did that all week,” Crosby said. “The energy in the building was great and we went and put that on display today.”

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