There were a couple of turning points in the Raiders’ 26-23 win in Baltimore on Sunday, but the play that we might look back on as the turning point in the entire season might have come on Gardner Minshew’s ugly interception with 5:10 remaining in the second quarter.
To that point in the season (six quarters), Minshew had not played well and team radio host ‘JT The Brick’ shared a conversation he was having with members of the organization back in Las Vegas.
“I was at the global headquarters of the Raiders, watching the game… I’m not going to tell you who, but there were a few of us in the room going ‘Hey, is Aidan [O’Connell] warming up?'” JT said on Monday during his weekly Raider Nation Radio show.
But as Minshew was coming off the field after his interception, Maxx Crosby grabbed the veteran quarterback by the jersey and went into an intense conversation that would have been the hardest-hitting audio of the week if it were available.
It was a positive, albeit one-sided, conversation and Minshew’s turnaround in the second half was undeniable.
“I thought that was a monster moment in the history of the Las Vegas Raiders,” JT said on Tuesday during an interview with Raiders GM Tom Telesco. “We don’t see that a lot. It just doesn’t happen where a defensive captain comes off the field and gets into a quarterback in a positive way, and then inspires that quarterback.”
For Crosby and Minshew, Sunday’s win was the next chapter in what has been a unique relationship for the two players over the last year.
It was less than 10 months ago that the two were on opposite sides of the ball having a different kind of exchange…
x: @raidersbeat