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Oakland Raiders vs Miami Dolphins match report: Wembley sees another blowout as Dolphins dominate Raiders in London

Oakland Raiders 14 Miami Dolphins 38

Tom Sheen
Monday 29 September 2014 10:20 BST
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Cortland Finnegan
Cortland Finnegan

It started so well for the Oakland Raiders.

The Silver and Black entered the match at Wembley with three successive losses but an encouraging performance last Sunday against the New England Patriots. Backed by a London crowd largely favouring them, Oakland started brilliantly, scoring a touchdown on their first drive with rookie quarterback Derek Carr looking in supreme form; but that was as good as it got for a team that has struggled mightily nder head coach Dennis Allen.

After that early score the game was Miami's, partly led by an impressive performance from under pressure quarterback Ryan Tannehill but also because of some awful defending by the men in black.

Tannehill ended the game with 278 yards passing with two touchdowns, and an interception, despite playing just one drive of the fourth quarter. The Dolphins were able to reach the first down marker at will with Oakland failing to force Miami to punt until the fourth quarter.

Lamar Miller and Daniel Thomas were able to break off big gains on the ground, and even Tannehill added 35 yards rushing.

Manchester-born Menelik Watson got significant playing time in this game, though he did not start and had to replace the injured Khalif Barnes. Watson performed reasonably against Pro Bowl defensive end Cameron Wake, but Carr became more desperate in his play.

Oakland head coach Dennis Allen will face questions over his future after the demoralising defeat

The game was over as a contest when Carr went down with a leg and ankle injury to be replaced by Matt McGloin - the back-up struggled mightily and threw two interceptions as well as fumbling a botched snap that allowed Cortland Finnegan (pictured above) to score.

Speaking after the game, Allen said: "Obviously, we did not play well. e turned the ball over, we did not stop them on defense. We gave up too many explosive plays. So we got the bye week coming up.

"We got a lot of things that we got to look at and a lot of self-evaluation that we got to go through to get this thing turned around."

Miami are now 2-2 and Oakland 0-4; expect coach Allen to face questions about his future after this demoralising defeat.

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