The Oakland Raiders did not win on Sunday as the team fell to the Tennessee Titans, but quarterback Matt McGloin appeared to do enough to earn another start in Week 13. The undrafted rookie looked like he was about to lead the Raiders to a second-straight win as starter until the Tennessee Titans mustered up a last-season touchdown drive to seal the victory. Despite the loss, the Raiders coaching staff is giving nothing but praise to the young quarterback.
McGloin earned the Week 12 start not on health, but on merit and production. Head coach Dennis Allen truly believed the rookie had done well enough in games and practice to be named the starter over Terrelle Pryor. The health status of Pryor is unknown after the quarterback suffered a knee injury, but right now it simply does not matter.
McGloin looked shaky at the start of the game, but pulled things together in the second half. He finished the day going 19 of 32 in passing for 260 yards, one touchdown and an interception. He tossed an excellent touchdown pass to fullback Marcel Reece that looked like it would win the game. Win or lose, Allen is giving the Thanksgiving day start to the rookie.
"Yeah, I thought Matt played well," Allen said, via ESPN.com. "And for him to lead us back when we needed a touchdown, he got us the touchdown we needed to give us the lead. We just couldn't hold it defensively."
McGloin has been pleased with his progress at the quarterback position. He told reporters that it is simply a display of hard work paying off. The quarterback entered the year as the player most likely to get cut after training camp and now he is starting over the likes of Tyler Wilson and Pryor. Disappointed in the loss, McGloin is hopeful the Raiders can work things out before the quick turnaround to face the Cowboys on Thursday.
"Just couldn't get things going early on, you're going to have days like that, unfortunately that was one of those days today," McGloin said. "But I thought we did a good job of adjusting at halftime. and it was great to see that we were able to make those changes and continue to get better and figure things out and work things out."
If McGloin keeps the progress up, the Raiders will have some interesting decisions to make in the offseason. The rookie and Pryor are two very different players. Pryor has shown moments of greatness this season before getting injured. McGloin is now showing all of the potential to lead the team. General manager Reggie McKenzie and Allen could have a nice problem on their hands moving forward.