The Oakland Raiders hung with the heavily favored Atlanta Falcons Sunday afternoon but ultimately were unable to pull off the road upset, with Matt Bryant's 55-yard field goal giving Atlanta the 23-20 win.

While most will agree that there are no moral victories in the NFL, the fine gentlemen over at Silver and Black Pride still found some "encouraging signs" from the Raiders' narrow defeat.

Among the positives was the defense getting three interceptions, strides from the pass rush and Darren McFadden finding the end zone. But this game was not without flaws and pass protection was one of the most glaring problems for the Raiders:

"The offensive line was called for holding several times, which negated a few nice plays. Falcon John Abraham had a sack from each side of the line. The second one came courtesy of Jared Veldheer and resulted in a strip which the Falcons recovered at the two-yard line. Luckily the Raiders were able to hold them out of the endzone despite setting up in first and goal at the two."

To dissect the Raiders' heartbreaking loss even more from Oakland's perspective, head on over to Silver and Black Pride.