Raiders Recap - Week 1
Reminder, if you’re looking for any of the other AFC West teams check out the Sunday blog here. Independent of the Khalil Mack fumbling, how great is it to see this guy back on the sidelines???
The offense had some ups and downs in this 33-13 loss to the Rams. The ups: Marshawn Lynch Looked great in limited touches. He literally dragged 75% of the people on the field into the end zone like Turley in ‘The Longest Yard’.
The offensive line held up extremely well against one of the highest touted defenses in recent memory. They only gave up 1 sack and 3 hits through the whole game. The best receiver of the game was easily Jared Cook, who had 9 receptions for a whopping 181 yarda, helping move the chains on some major plays. He also truck sticked Aqib Talib into the earth’s crust
YEESH. Derek Carr looked outright terrible, going 27/38 for 260 yards and no touchdowns. He did, however, have 3 picks including one that was taken back for 6. Like I mentioned when they played Green Bay, his velocity just seems off. It might have been a simple underthrow/ill advised back foot duck/terrible read, but I’m fairly certain he has lingering issues.
Tough, TOUGH look letting a guy grab his nuts a la Marshawn in your face like that. The defense played much better against the pass than I expected, but much worse vs the run. To be fair, Gurley is one of the best RB’s in the league, but they were making a lot of contact and just failing to bring him down. Bruce Irvin did his best Khalil Mack impression, strip sacking Goff while backed up to the red zone.
That was a great play deep in their own territory. The secondary stepped up on some huge plays. Rashaan Melvin had a phenomenal pass deflection (also a bad pass interference penalty). Leon Hall also showed some spunk, deflecting some passes and racking up tackles. The problem was with the linebackers. Other than Tahir Whitehead, who was outstanding all game, they were getting lost on most of the looks they had thrown at them. Intermediate passing routes is where they are going to need to improve in a big way.
Takeaways: Carr needs to work on his velocity so he can feed these big play receivers. Amari Cooper having 1 catch for 9 yards and Jordy having 3 for 23 is unacceptable. This secondary may be in less trouble than we thought, and Gareon Conley might be ready to live up to the hype! The linebackers need to work harder at converting intermediate routes, and the age of this team sort of showed as the game wore on. Also, evergreen statement for this team, they need to clean up the penalties. 10 for 145 yards in the first half alone.
Notes: The highest paid long snapper in the league, Andrew DePaola, went down with a non-contact injury and did not return. Marcus Gilchrist took a nasty hit to the head, but walked off on his own power.
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