Raiders vs. Texans 2013: Matt McGloin ‘favorite’ in QB race for Oakland after win

The Oakland Raiders pulled of an unexpected victory yesterday with its starting quarterback on the bench, beating the host Houston Texans 28-23 on Sunday afternoon.

With Terrelle Pryor sitting on the bench because of a knee injury, undrafted rookie Matt McGloin stepped into the limelight for his first NFL start. The former Penn State star ended up having a fine debut, tossing three touchdowns and no interceptions on 18 of 32 attempts for 197 yards.

McGloin was helped out by a terrific running game, despite Darren McFadden missing the game. Backup Rashad Jennings amassed 150 yards on 22 carries, leading the way to a Raiders upset.

While Allen is unlikely to name a starter until at least Wednesday, if not later in the week, there is at very least a controversy. The Raiders have two young, hard-working, highly competitive quarterbacks on the team and they are six more starts to be doled out this season as they look for one of them to emerge as a viable option for the future.

At this moment, McGloin must be considered the favorite in that race.

As for the Texans, they are simply playing out the string in a highly disappointing season. The real question for Houston is whether it believes enough in Case Keenum to keep him as a franchise quarterback instead of drafting a signal-caller in the first round next May. The answer may be obvious, after Keenum was benched for Matt Schaub.

Bayless Parsley of Battle Red Blog summed up the game grimly:

There is no need to go any further here. Everyone saw what happened. Everyone saw the exchange between Schaub and Andre Johnson on the sideline at the end of the game. The image of Johnson walking into the locker room, alone, his head down as the boos rained on Reliant, is perhaps the saddest moment of the 2013 season.