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OAKLAND — Jon Gruden called NFL games for ESPN for nine years, and during that time, America came to understand that one of his favorite plays in the world is called “Spider 2 Y Banana”.
It seemed as if there wasn’t a Monday Night Football game where the play wasn’t mentioned. Spider 2 Y Banana became an inside joke of sorts for football nerds.
But it’s a real play and Thursday night, Gruden called it just before halftime.
Sure enough, Raiders’ fullback Alex Ingold reached the end zone with Spider 2 Y Banana to give Oakland the halftime lead en route to a 26-24 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. The Raiders (5-4), with the Bengals (0-8) and Jets (1-7) next on the schedule, are genuine playoff contenders.
We now return you to Spider 2 Y Banana.
“Everyone always asks me — is that a real play in the playbook?” Derek Carr told me after the game. “I always say yes — and we ran it for a touchdown today… in the most important game of the year. “
Carr couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I think it’s funny,” said Ingold, who made an outstanding play in the open field to score. “A lot of guys rallied around it pretty good. We hadn’t called it all this year.”
Carr disagrees with that assessment from Ingold — “we have different Spiders every week,” he said — but he thought it was funny too.
“It’s comedy,” Carr said. “Because that’s exactly what he calls it. It’s hilarious.”
Of course, it’s not a laughing matter for the Raiders’ head coach. He might have leaned into the meme a bit when he was an ESPN entertainer, but there’s no time for internet fame now. He called the play because, as we saw, it was the right play for the moment.
“He loves it,” Carr said of Gruden. “But in his mind, it’s not funny.”
Do you know who else didn’t find it funny?
The Chargers.
Ferrell’s big day needed no comment
The B-word started to be thrown around in regards to Raiders’ defensive end and No. 4 overall pick Clelin Ferrell in recent weeks.
Bust.
Was that fair? Probably not.
But Ferrell’s uninspiring play, juxtaposed with the near-NFL Defensive Player of the Year level of play from the No. 2 overall pick, San Francisco’s Nick Bosa, and some of the other strong performances from pass rushers in what has proven to be a draft class that was as good as advertised, was working against him.
On Thursday, things were working for him, though.
Let’s be clear: if you want to improve your stats and make an impact on the game as a pass rusher, it helps to go up against a terrible, atrocious, nowhere-near-replacement-level offensive line, like the one the Chargers played at the Coliseum on Thursday. The Raiders rushed four all night and still had 10 quarterback hits and countless hurries.
And it was Ferrell who had the biggest game of any Raiders’ defensive lineman. Going against Chargers backup left tackle Trey Pipkins, a rookie out of Sioux Falls (didn’t know that was a school), he registered 2.5 sacks, five solo tackles, three quarterback hits, two tackles for loss, and a pass breakup.
It was a huge game, a great night — the kind of performance that he had been building towards for a few weeks and will certainly alleviate any concerns about the immediacy of his impact with the Raiders.
Ferrell wasn’t a fast starter? Fine. The question is how he will finish. You saw the kind of ceiling he can have on Thursday.
I do have to say, though, it was less than ideal that he decided to big-time the media after the game. It wasn’t very prudent, either.
Ferrell had been a joy to deal with in previous media interactions. But Thursday night, he tried to freeze the media around his locker by being borderline OCD with his toiletries and sundries after he was dressed. And he said he was only going to answer one question.
He then sideswiped a laudatory-in-nature question and left.
No one cares about the media — nor should they — and I’m certainly not complaining about our treatment by the Raiders or Ferrell. It’s not a big deal whatsoever that he didn’t want to speak.
But if he was angry at the media about the “bust” conversations, he needs to get better subscriptions. If anything, the established media has been deflecting fan criticism of him and his play.
Perhaps that’s because we liked him and his winning personality.
I don’t know if he’ll get that kind of benefit of the doubt anymore.
Then again, if he keeps playing like he did Thursday, he won’t need it.
Raiders 3 & Out: Yes, Oakland really ran ‘Spider 2 Y Banana’ for a touchdown
Carr No. 18
There's simply something special about Carr late in games.
And in back-to-back games now — twice in one week — he has led the Raiders’ on a game-winning, fourth-quarter touchdown drive.
Of course, there have been the let-downs, but Thursday marked the 18th game-winning drive of his career. That’s a new NFL record for a player in their first six seasons and a Raiders franchise record.
Carr won’t be able to match his 2016 heroics, when he had seven fourth-quarter-comeback, game-winning drives — he almost won the MVP that year — but there’s no question that he still has a bit of that year’s magic left in him.
“I’ll say this, when they scored to make it 24-20, I believe, on the little shallow cross-play, I looked over at everyone, because here we go again, right?” Carr said. “We were just here, it feels like two days ago, talking about this. But we know we have to go on a two-minute drive to go win this thing. I look around and all the young guys were like, the look on their face, was just like they're ready. It just gives you so much confidence as a quarterback that you can trust everyone in that situation. I think a lot of different people touched the ball on that drive, made some big plays for us. So, it was really good.”
I've been here six years…. These young guys, they haven't been in those positions with me. Rodney [Hudson]'s been here for the majority of them right? I literally looked at him and said, "Rodney, just like every time." You pick them up, we'll win this game’.
We have that confidence, but now, with these young guys, we've done this a couple times where I look at them, and they're like, "Yeah, let's go."
