Bruce Gradkowski replaced an ineffective Jason Campbell and led the Oakland Raiders to a 16-14 victory over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.
Darren McFadden ran for 145 yards on 30 carries and Sebastian Janikowski kicked three field goals for Oakland (1-1), which won its home opener for the first time since 2004.
Rookie Sam Bradford was 13-of-23 for 171 yards and a pair of touchdown passes for St. Louis (0-2), which has lost 10 straight and 13 in a row to AFC foes.
Gradkowski finished 11 of 22 for 162 yards with a touchdown and an interception in place of Campbell, who was 8 of 15 for 87 yards and an interception before being pulled at halftime.
Gradkowski hit Louis Murphy for a 4-yard touchdown with 6:07 left in the third, giving the Raiders a 13-7 lead. Janikowski extended the lead to 16-7 with 9:05 remaining in the fourth.
Bradford’s second touchdown toss to Mark Clayton drew the Rams within 16-14 with 3:18 remaining. St. Louis had a chance to get the ball back with the Raiders backed up, but a questionable roughing-the-passer call gave Oakland first down at its own 24-yard line.
McFadden’s tough running then helped the Raiders help run out the clock.
St. Louis | Oakland | |
Steven Jackson | Player | Darren McFadden |
19 | Attempts | 30 |
75 | Yards | 145 |
4.0 | Avg Yards | 4.8 |
0 | Touchdowns | 0 |
23 | Long | 30 |
St. Louis | Oakland | |
Steven Jackson | Player | Louis Murphy |
4 | Receptions | 6 |
50 | Yards | 91 |
12.5 | Avg Yards | 15.2 |
0 | Touchdowns | 1 |
24 | Long | 27 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
St. Louis | 210 | 75 | 135 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2.0 | 2 |
Oakland | 404 | 173 | 231 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3.0 | 0 |