The Claw

Written by Carter Cox and Ryan Hodge (Sports Writer)

Since March 12th, all sports seasons have been suspended until the coronavirus stops spreading. For football, the season hasn’t been postponed since it is in the offseason but it has been an interesting offseason. During these trying times, the NFL has given their fans some hope by giving them NFL Game Pass for free. Here are some of the best games to watch from the Forty-Niners and the Raiders of the decade. Which you can watch on NFL Game Pass for free. 

One of the biggest wins for the forty-niners was when the forty-niners played during the 2012 NFC championship, the 49ers were getting badly beaten by the Atlanta Falcons. But, as the game continued the 49ers came back and at the end of the first half, the Forty-Niners were only down 24-14. In the second half, Frank Gore rose for the team and scored two touchdowns to help make the game within reach. Then, the Niners came back with the Atlanta Falcons making a lot of costly mistakes partly because the Forty-niners defense was key and the Niners led the Falcons 28-24. Then as the clock dwindled to the last few minutes the Niners blocked a fourth-down possession from the Falcons to send them to the super bowl. Another big game of the decade for the forty-niners was against the Seahawks in the last game from last year. The forty-niners started by winning 13-0 in the first half and then during the second half the 49ers ended up clinging onto a 26-21 lead against the Seahawks and the Seahawks were on a fourth-down possession with a few seconds left near the touchdown. This would determine if the niners were first or fifth for the NFC. Russell threw the ball to his receiver and he caught it but an amazing block from Dre Greenlaw pushed back the receiver to block him from getting to the touchdown. With the forty-niners winning by one inch. Another exciting game was there was a close game against the Saints in the 2011 NFC Divisional playoff game. In the last sixteen seconds, it was a close game and Alex Smith threw a touchdown pass to win the game with eight seconds remaining to get a huge win. 

Some of the best Raiders games from the past decade. One of them was in Week eight 2016 the Raiders were getting beaten by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by ten points. Then, Derek Carr rose up for the team and played one of the best games of his career. The game became all tied up later with a score of 24-24 and it went to overtime. After a while of the ball going back and forth the raiders finally got the ball back with less than a minute remaining. The quarterback threw the ball to the wide receiver, Seth Roberts who managed to get through the Buccaneers and scored a touchdown for the win. The second best game to watch of the Raiders from the past 10 years on NFL Game Pass is on Week fourteen 2015 against the Denver Broncos. During this game Khalil Mack had such an amazing game and it was such a performance that you have to watch this game. In this game everyone saw that Khalil Mack was going to be a star and during that game he had five sacks. Khalil Mack was making it hard for the offense and in the end, he had a stellar game with beating their rivals. The third game you should watch is Week one in 2016 facing the New Orleans Saints. During the game both the teams both fought well as it was a close game for a while. Then, the New Orleans Saints pulled away and in the fourth quarter. It ended with a nail biter. The Raiders came back and brought it in with a one possession game. The Raiders got the ball back from the New Orleans Saints after a kick off and drove towards the touchdown and got it. The game was now a one point game with the raiders behind and instead of tying the game they thought it would be best to go for the two point conversion to go for the win. During the play the quarterback threw the ball to Micheal Crabtree and he hunt on to it and the Raiders won the game by one point.

Those were the best games from the past decade from the Raiders and the forty-niners. Sadly the raiders have left the bay area and are now in Las Vegas but we will never forget the Oakland Raiders. Don’t forget to cheer for the Raiders even though they left the Bay Area and the Forty-niners.