TC Martin

Raiders Celebrate With Grand Opening W     

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What an opening night. The hype, the crowd, the ambience and by the way the game.  One for the ages. 

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The Las Vegas Raiders opened up their 2-billion-dollar home to fans in spectacular fashion filled with everything including last second drama to make for a perfect grand opening ending with a thrilling come from behind 33-27 overtime victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

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Starting with Gladys Knight belting out the national anthem and long time Raiders fans Ice Cube and Too Short performing at halftime, the night at it all.  But the comeback was the star.  

After jumping out to a 14-0 lead with just under nine minutes left to play in the second quarter, it looked like the Ravens were going to coast to a win, but then the improbable happened: The Raiders fought back to tie the game at 17 in the fourth quarter, which set up the drama down the stretch.

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The teams exchanged touchdowns and field goals in the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime.  The Raiders thought they had the game won a Derek Carr pass to Bryan Edwards for an apparent 33 yard touchdown. After the celebration and the teams started walking off the field, the officials said no touchdown with Edwards down inside the one yard line. 

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After a false start penalty to move the ball back to the six, Carr went back to pass and was intercepted in the end zone. With Baltimore getting a second life, Lamar Jackson fumbled for the second time of the game, giving the Raiders another golden opportunity to get the victory. Catching the Ravens in an all-out blitz, Carr found Zay Jones all alone on the right side for the game winning 31 yard touchdown that sent the frenzied crowd of 61,756 into official celebration mode.   

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It was a stunning loss for the Ravens who were 81-0 in regular season games since John Harbaugh took over as Baltimore's coach in 2008, when they led by at least 14 points. Overall, the Ravens had won 98 straight games dating back to 2004 when holding a lead of 14 or more points in a game

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The win for the Raiders marked the first time in five years that they were able to overcome a deficit of at least 14 points to win a game. The last time it happened came in December 2016 when the Raiders overcame a 24-9 deficit against the Bills in a game they would win 38-24. The good news for the Raiders is that the 2016 season also happens to be the last time they made the playoffs. 

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Time will tell if this was the beginning of truly a new era of Raiders lore or if its more of the same recent struggles after yearly hope.  For now, Las Vegas fans are excited for more of this.

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