Josh Jacobs, offensive line spark Raiders during decisive drive

Derek Carr has handed Josh Jacobs the ball on nearly every carry of his career, and the Raiders quarterback can’t recall a time when the team’s top running back has looked better than he did Sunday on the opening drive of the third quarter.

Jacobs carried the ball seven times for 57 yards on a nine-play, 75-yard drive that proved to be the game-winning possession in a 17-13 win over the Denver Broncos at Allegiant Stadium.

“I told him the way his feet were moving after contact through some of those holes, I turned around and didn’t see anything in them and he just punctured a hole in there with his strength,” Carr said. “The way he was cutting and running, I told him, ‘I think that’s the best drive I’ve ever seen you have.’”

The timing couldn’t have been any better for a Raiders team that went into the locker room reeling after two late first-half turnovers led to 10 Denver points as fans booed the home team off the field.

Trailing 13-7, Jacobs took a handoff on the first play of the third quarter and gained 8 yards. He picked up 7 on the next play, then fought through the middle for 3 yards before Carr found wide receiver DeSean Jackson for a 13-yard gain.

It was the only pass attempt of the possession.

Jacobs took the next play for 8 yards, then danced through the defense for 19 on the next play to get the Raiders into the red zone.

He picked up 4 yards and 8 yards on the next two plays before finally coming out of the game with the ball at the 5 yard line.

Peyton Barber picked up the slack from there with a touchdown run on the next play.

“Any time you’re able to get the coach to run the ball that many times, as an offensive lineman you get excited,” center Andre James said. “It’s nice to pass the ball and everything, but the run game is the character of offensive linemen. We were excited to have the offensive staff have the trust in us to be able to run the ball like that. Coming out, we just talked as an offensive line that we wanted to take the game over and get that running game going.”

The 62 rushing yards on the drive were more than the Raiders had in four games this season and came after they managed just 31 yards on 12 carries in the first half.

Interim coach Rich Bisaccia credited offensive coordinator Greg Olson and offensive line coach Tom Cable for making a tweak to the run game during halftime.

“It gave us the ability to run some of the plays we had been working on,” Bisaccia said. “A couple different runs we had put in for this particular game to go downhill a little more. Then a credit to the offensive line … they had a little bit of edge as well. … We had a mindset that we thought we could run the ball.”

That same running game that has disappeared at times this season also came through late in the game when the Raiders needed two first downs to drain the clock.

Jacobs ran four times for 25 yards, which laid the foundation for Carr to run a play-action fake that got Foster Moreau wide open for a 28-yard completion to essentially end the game.

“We were mad (at halftime), but there was a confidence that we knew we would come out strong because we were running efficiently, we were throwing efficiently, the play-action game was awesome for us,” Carr said.

Wide receiver Hunter Renfrow, who had the Raiders’ only touchdown in the first half, didn’t understate the importance of the third-quarter scoring drive.

“The mood was we dug ourselves a hole,” he said. “I don’t want to say embarrassed, because we did it to ourselves. At first, it was a bit of a shock, but then it was, “All right, are we going to come out here and save our season?”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.