SportsFullCircle

It’s only the preseason, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait to catch an exciting football game! On Friday, the Tennessee Titans defeated the Oakland Raiders 17 to 16 on a last-second 33-yard field goal by John Vaughn, who is replacing the injured Rob Bironas.

Leading 14 to 13 midway through the 4th quarter, Oakland kicker Aaron Elling kicked a 45-yard field goal that bounced off the left upright and through the yellow poles to give the Raiders a 16-14 lead. All hope seemed lost for Tennessee when Raiders running back Adimchinobe Echemandu broke the Titans defense, one of whose players injured his leg while chasing the 27-year old from Lagos, Nigeria. However, Titans cornerback Marquice Cole saved at least a touchdown by tackling Echemandu seven yards from the endzone. After two rushes by Echemandu that both ended at the Tennessee 1-yard line, Raiders fullback Oren O’Neal was handed the ball and lost it trying to reach the endzone. Titans DB Tony Joiner forced the fumble, which was recovered by Tennessee LB Stanford Keglar.

Starting from his own 3-yard line, Titans QB Ingle Martin had 2:10 to engineer a winning drive. After facing two critical third downs that both resulted in just enough yardage for first downs, Martin was only 41 yards away from the land of six. With 18 seconds left in the game, Martin threw a pass to Chris Davis, who ran the ball all the way to the Oakland 15-yard line. After the Titans offense rushed to the line of scrimmage, Martin spiked the ball with 2 seconds left, and Tennessee would go on to kick the game-winning field goal.

Martin ended the day completing 6 of 11 passes for 103 yards. Vince Young went 4-for-13 for 37 yards while Kerry Collins went 4-for-15 for 109 yards and one touchdown.

Oakland, on the other hand, used two quarterbacks: JaMarcus Russell and Andrew Walter. Russell completed 10 of 17 passes for 75 yards and one touchdown while Walter went 7-for-11 for 85 yards.