Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 9 vs Jaguars
Jacksonville is often where teams go to bounce back from a funk. The Raiders sure could’ve used a bounce-back. But instead, they stayed in the funk they had been in after a 24-0 loss in New Orleans.
It appeared early on that the Raiders were putting New Orleans behind them. They jumped out to a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter. But the wheels started to fall off late in the second quarter and that car went off a cliff in the third quarter.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, the Raiders’ lead was no more. The Jaguars scored on their third straight drive to take a 24-20 lead and never gave it back. The high-powered Raiders offense from the first half was a distant memory and they were shut out in the second half to lose 27-20.
Ballers
WR Davante Adams
Adams scored the Raiders first two touchdowns. The first one, he played the DB perfectly up the left sideline. Carr’s pass was on target, but wasn’t out in front of Adams, so the savvy All-Pro receiver knew he needed to make sure he didn’t reach for the pass until it was right on him or risk the DB turning to bat it down. The DB never saw it coming and the result was a 25-yard touchdown.
On the second touchdown, Adams went on a corner route from left to right, got the safety turned around and broke wide open for a 38-yard touchdown.
Adams was a big part of the offense that put the Raiders in scoring position for three of their four scores as well. He had nine catches on nine targets for 146 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.
Though Adams was frustrated with how the game played out in the second half, he did still get eight targets. Just one of those passes could be considered a drop. Another would have taken a miraculous play by Adams to keep his feet inbounds. So, while his work was a big reason the Raiders’ offense was clicking the first half, his lack of catches in the second half was not his fault.
DE Maxx Crosby
Crosby was a big reason for the Jaguars’ inability to score early in the game. He recovered a fumble to end their first drive. Then he ended the second drive by making a tackle for loss on third and one.
Late in the game, with the Raiders still within four points, Crosby was still full board. He had a run stuff and then came flying in on third and seven and had to be held to keep from blowing up the play. The Raiders declined the penalty because it was stopped short of the sticks, but the six-yard gain on the play made for a 48-yard field goal and a seven-point lead.
He finished with five tackles, a tackle for loss, a QB hit, and a fumble recovery.
Busters
QB Derek Carr
Davante Adams was frustrated with the fact that after he had nine catches on nine targets in the first half, he had just one catch for zero yards in the second half. The tendency is to want to look at the gameplan, but the thing is Adams got the targets. Carr just wasn’t throwing them where he could catch them.
Carr’s bad day actually started near the end of the first half. When on third and three, Ameer Abdullah broke open in the end zone and Carr floated a duck that was so short the linebacker had time to catch up and the pass hit him in the back. Thus what should have been a touchdown and a 24-7 lead, was a field goal and a 20-7 lead instead.
The Colts then added a field goal at the end of the second quarter and a touchdown drive to begin the third quarter to make it a 20-17 game. Carr had to get the offense back on track. He didn’t do that. Instead, on consecutive passes, he threw off-target to Adams, leading to his catch that was stopped for no gain, and then threw what should have been a pick-six, but was dropped.
The next time the Raiders got the ball, the Jaguars were leading 24-20. But it was the beginning of the fourth quarter, so there was plenty of time to take the momentum back. That never happened. The Jaguars even missed a field goal to keep the game within reach.
Carr threw four passes for Adams on the next three possessions — one behind him and incomplete, one too wide and out of bounds for Adams to make the catch and get both feet down, the third off target with Adams wide open on the slant, and the final was way off target and out of bounds where Adams couldn’t even try and make a play on it.
The last real chance the Raiders had was on fourth and two from their own 39-yard-line. And Carr threw too high and hot for Renfrow over the middle and it fell incomplete. The Jaguars took over already in field goal range and made it a seven-point game with seconds left on the clock.
HC Josh McDaniels, DC Patrick Graham
Another late-game collapse. Another 17-point lead washed away. The third this season. And we’re just eight games in. You can’t blame one side of the ball, either. They share the blame equally. One side stops scoring and the other side can’t stop the other team from scoring. Thrice is a trend. And a disturbing one at that.
S Tre’von Moehrig, S Johnathan Abram, S Duron Harmon, CB Anthony Averett
With a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter, the Raiders seemed to be playing well on both sides of the ball. Then the Jaguars started to pick them apart.
The first big completion went for 22 yards to former Raiders receiver Zay Jones with Abram in coverage. And the Jaguars went on to score their first touchdown of the day.
The next Jags drive seemed like a long shot as they had just :50 seconds left on the clock. It went from a long shot to reality when, on third and three, Trevor Lawrence took off running. With several Raiders defenders, including Abram bearing down on him, he clutched the ball and slowed to brace for impact. That impact never came, so he just kept running, picking up 24 yards and leading to a field goal to head into the half.
The first drive of the third quarter saw Moehrig miss a tackle to give up five yards on third and one. A few plays later, Moehrig gave up a wide-open touchdown catch to pull the Jags to within three at 20-17.
The Raiders lead was no more on the next drive. It started with Moehrig giving up a 15-yard catch, then Harmon giving up catches of five and 11 yards, Averett giving up a 19-yard catch, and Moehrig missing the tackle on an eight-yard run to the six-yard line.
It would have been a seven-point deficit earlier had the Jaguars not missed a field goal. On that drive Harmon and Averett both missed tackles to give up a 16-yard run and Averett gave up a ten-yard catch on third and four.
C Andre James
The first possession ended with a three-and-out with James giving up the sack on third down. The offense played well for a time. But after things stalled and the lead was lost, James did his part to stop their best chance to get anything going again.
The Raiders’ first drive of the fourth quarter ended with James missing his block to give up a run stuff and then giving up a pressure on third down that caused Derek Carr to flee the pocket and throw on the run. The pass was just a bit wide and Davante Adams couldn’t make the catch inbounds.
The next drive ended with James giving up quick pressure on Carr for what would have been a sack, but Carr quickly threw a pass to the back that fell incomplete. Either way, it killed it with a three-and-out when they most needed a long sustained drive.
