Day 26 · 11-5 · Lost Super Bowl XXXVII to the Buccaneers, 48-21
Five starters took the field for this offense: quarterback, running back, two receivers, and a tight end. How many can you name before the hints kick in?
You remember when the Raiders finally got back to the Super Bowl—and found Jon Gruden waiting for them. Oakland had spent the previous two years getting close. The Raiders reached the AFC Championship Game in 2000, then watched the Tuck Rule game slip away in the snow a year later. After that season, Gruden left for Tampa Bay and Bill Callahan took over. The roster was old, loaded, and built to win immediately. Rich Gannon, Tim Brown, Jerry Rice, Charles Woodson, Rod Woodson. There wasn't much time left.
Everything started with Rich Gannon. Gannon had spent years bouncing around the league before becoming the perfect quarterback for Oakland's offense. Rice was somehow still producing at 40, Brown remained one of the faces of the franchise, Jerry Porter gave them another weapon outside, and Charlie Garner could hurt defenses from anywhere. On defense, Charles Woodson was still Charles Woodson, while Rod Woodson gave an already experienced team another future Hall of Famer. The Raiders weren't young. They weren't building toward anything. This was supposed to be the year.
Oakland started 4-0, then lost four straight. The season suddenly looked like it was slipping away before a Monday night in Denver changed everything. Rod Woodson returned an interception 98 yards for a touchdown, Gannon threw three scores, and the Raiders won 34-10. They won seven of their final eight from there, finished 11-5, and took the AFC's No. 1 seed. Gannon threw for 4,689 yards and won MVP. At 37 years old, after spending most of his career as somebody else's backup or temporary answer, he had become the best player in football.
Then Oakland finally broke through. The Jets came into the Coliseum and lost 30-10. Tennessee came next for the AFC Championship Game, and Gannon threw three touchdowns and ran for another as the Raiders pulled away 41-24. After the AFC Championship loss, after the Tuck Rule, after watching Gruden leave, Oakland was finally going back to the Super Bowl.
And waiting there was Gruden. He had spent four years coaching Gannon and building the offense Oakland was still running. Now he had Derrick Brooks, Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Simeon Rice, and one of the best defenses in football behind him. The matchup almost felt too perfect. The Raiders had the league MVP and an offense Gruden knew intimately. Tampa Bay had the defense built to destroy it.
Then things started going wrong before the game even began. Pro Bowl center Barret Robbins disappeared the day before the Super Bowl and wasn't there on Sunday. Then Gannon threw an interception. And another. And another. Dexter Jackson picked him off twice. Dwight Smith did it twice more. Derrick Brooks added another. Five interceptions in all. Three came back for touchdowns.
Forty-eight to twenty-one. The Raiders had spent years trying to get back to this game, only to be dismantled by the coach who knew them better than anyone. Gruden was lifting the Lombardi Trophy in his first season away from Oakland. Gannon's MVP season ended with five interceptions. Brown and Rice had finally gotten the Raiders back to the Super Bowl, and the last image of the run was Tampa Bay defenders taking Oakland passes the other way.
That's how people remember the 2002 Raiders. They remember Gannon becoming MVP at 37, Rice still doing this at 40, Brown getting one more shot, and an aging roster finally breaking through after years of playoff heartbreak. They remember Barret Robbins disappearing, five interceptions, and Gruden standing on the opposite sideline. Most of all, they remember the Raiders finally reaching the game they had spent years chasing—and finding the one coach who already knew exactly how to beat them.