Tenacious Raiders Stun Bengals Late

After a physical beatdown of the reigning Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, the Cincinnati Bengals were riding high. "Just look at their next three opponents," observers proclaimed -- with good reason, as the Bengals were staring at the Raiders, Browns and Lions in succession on their schedule. The three teams had combined for four wins and 23 losses before Week 10, while the Bengals had won seven of eight since their fluky Week 1 loss.

Facing Bruce Gradkowski and the Raiders offense surely shouldn't be a problem for a team that held Ben Roethlisberger in check, right? Well, that's why they play the games.

Oakland scored 10 points in the final minute of regulation to upset Cincinnati, 20-17.

The Bengals jumped on top 14-0 behind two Carson Palmer rushing (that's not a typo) touchdowns.

This is where you have to give Oakland credit. Aside from the most devout of Raider Nation, no one thought Cincy would lose this game. After coughing up two touchdowns, the Raiders could have rolled over and taken the easy way out. Instead, they fought and they fought harder than they have all season.

Behind four takeaways -- seriously, Carson, there's a reason no one ever throws at Nnamdi Asomugha -- the Raiders rallied back. Gradkowski didn't light up the stat sheet, but he found a way to claw his team back in the game. He even shook off a mistake of his own to rebound with a game-tying drive.

With 6:08 left in the game and his Raiders trailing by a touchdown, Gradkowski had a chance to complete Oakland's rally after taking over possession in Cincinnati territory. Instead, he threw an interception on the first play of the drive. But his defense picked him up by forcing the Bengals to punt.

Gradkowski must have wanted more of a challenge. The second time around, he had just 2:12 to work with and the Raiders needed to move 80 yards. They did just that, 79 of those yards coming from Gradkowski's arm. He worked beautifully on the drive and found Louis Murphy in the end zone to tie the game with 33 seconds left.

The game appeared destined for overtime until Andre Caldwell fumbled the ball back to the Raiders on the ensuing kickoff. Already well within the strong-legged Sebastian Janikowski's range, the Raiders kneeled three times and let the Polish placekicker bring the win home. He connected on the 33-yard field goal and the Raiders had upset the Bengals, 20-17.

The Raiders got a nice game from tight end Zach Miller, who caught five passes for 65 yards and a touchdown, but the story was their ball-hawking defense and special teams giving the offense multiple opportunities to win the game.

The Bengals were without leading rusher Cedric Benson, but rookie Bernard Scott filled in admirably with 119 yards on 21 carries (recent addition Larry Johnson had two carries for a measly five yards). Again, though, the major theme here was Cincinnati's inability to hold on to the football -- you can't turn it over four times on the road and expect to beat anyone.

The Raiders will look to keep things going when they travel to Dallas for a Thanksgiving bout with the Cowboys.

The Bengals actually didn't lose any ground in the standings, as every single AFC North team lost on Sunday. So they received a gift. They'll count their blessings and look to take care of business against the Browns at home next Sunday.