Reliving the pain and confusion of the first Raiders loss of the season

And the momentum for the Oakland Raiders is gone.

After beating the Saints on the road last week, the Raiders lost its home opener to the Falcons 35-28 behind a sloppy offense which only gets going in the fourth quarters and a putrid defense which cannot stop anybody anywhere. So let’s see how things went on Sunday.

I almost fell asleep during the first quarter. No one was getting anything, except for a sack by Stacy McGee. I mean, the Falcons could have kicked a makeable 50+ FG, but it was in the dirt so they chose to punt instead. It was an ugly quarter with the defenses prevailing over very uninspired offenses.

Then things started to go south for the Raiders. The defense could not hold the Falcons, but luckily their first red zone stint ended with just a 21-yard FG after failing to hit pay dirt. On the Raiders’ next drive, a stupid PI call on a Carr bomb to Michael Crabtree put the team on the 1-yard line, which Murray turned into a TD with ease. 7-3 Raiders.

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On the very next drive, in a little bit over 3 minutes, the Falcons scored a TD after Julio Jones burned Sean Smith on an inside crossing route. Smith did not bump Jones at the line of scrimmage, who ran freely into the middle of the field. The strange thing was that there was absolutely no help there. No safeties. Nothing. Jones caught the pass and ran into the end zone untouched. Something was obviously wrong. Either someone missed his appointment or the scheme was flat out horrible. 10-7 Falcons.

With an extremely conservative play calling, the Raiders’ following drive went nowhere and just took some minutes off the clock. Some may say the team wanted to control the tempo and the clock. Fine, but if you take a lot of time off the clock and do not score, and if your defense is being gashed over and over, this strategy will bite you in your behind.

Another explanation for the sloppy offensive calls would be to rest the defense. But again, the defense was so bad that the Falcons’ drives were pretty fast (more on this later), so in the end, the defensive players were not on the field for a lot of time, meaning that they did not need that much rest. Plus, if you start putting points on the board, it pushes the opponent to play fast (or at least faster than they wanted to) and throw more, which improves your chances of forcing turnovers. And if you are able to force turnovers, your defense goes back to the bench more quickly.

Anyway, the Falcons responded with another FG, after the Raiders goal line defense again avoided the TD. It’s weird that the Falcons were moving the ball so easily but were stalling when reaching the Raiders’ red zone. The Raiders even had a few seconds left and managed to put Seabass in FG range, but he missed the 58-yarder from the dirt. 13-7 Falcons going into halftime.

Everybody was hoping the coaches would make the necessary adjustments in the locker room so that the offense produced more and the defense made a few stops. Well, the offense was indeed better (because, as usual, the Raiders were losing, so OC Bill Musgrave was supposed to open up the playbook) and Clive Walford scored a TD taking advantage of the Falcons’ CB slipping on the turf. The Raiders were back up 14-13.

Then it was a TE-Goes-Wild Fest from that moment on, much like most of last year. The Raiders defense continued to show gigantic holes in the middle of the field. Once more Malcolm Smith and Ben Heeney were completely unable to cover the Falcons TEs, who had a mind-boggling 180 yards combined, apart from being unable to tackle any runners whatsoever. The Raiders’ LB situation is a total mess and is easily the weakest link in the defense, which is even worse due to the flawed schemes adopted by DC Ken Norton Jr. It was ugly. It was so ugly that even an end zone interception by David Amerson only happened because he was late in coverage and Ryan threw the ball way behind TE Jacob Tamme. If Amerson was in tight coverage, this pass would have gone straight out of bounds.

But it was just a matter of time. The Raiders defensive mess led to another TD by the Falcons, with Ryan continuing to look for Tamme (or any other TE, actually), followed by a 2-point conversion which Ryan took himself to the end zone. Just so you have an idea of how bad the Raiders’ defense played, this Falcons’ drive was for 85 yards and only took a ridiculous 1:46 off the clock. It was a 2-minute drill without the need to hurry. Hideous. Falcons up 21-14. End of the third quarter.

So again the Raiders entered the final quarter trailing, which means Musgrave would be much less conservative, right? Bingo. After about 6 minutes and change the Raiders scored a TD with Crabtree in a 4th and 2. A beautifully executed slant route. So in spite of a ridiculous defensive performance, the game was still tied 21-21, hanging by a thread.

It didn’t last long. The defense kept leaving receivers wide open and the team ran out of luck, so two and a half minutes later, the Falcons were already at the Raiders’ 8-yard line. Matt Ryan threw a pass to a receiver running a crossing route, which was deflected and went up in the air… just to fall in the hands of another Falcons’ receiver also crossing the field to the other side, Justin Hardy, for the TD. 28-21 Falcons.

By that time the Raiders had slightly over 9 minutes for one last drive to tie the game, but the offense failed to move the ball and the Raiders had a 4th and 2 at its own 49-yard line. Coach Del Rio and his balls decided to go for it, but Musgrave called an inside run for Jalen Richard, who only got one yard. Horrible call. Turn over on downs and Falcons’ ball.

The defense absolutely needed to make a play at that point to get the offense back on the field. Well, not only the defense did not make any plays, but they also allowed another Falcons’ TD in a two and a half-minute drive. A 13-yard run by Tevin Coleman. 35-21 and a two-score game.

Let’s pause here for a moment.

The Falcons had six scoring drives (4 TDs and 2 FGs) and another one which ended with the Amerson interception. These seven drives took, respectively, 4:52, 3:00, 0:53 (due to a huge punt return and a horse-collar tackle by Marquette King, who saved what would be a TD), 1:42, 1:46, 2:25 and 2:31. So the Falcons’ average drive time was 2:27. You read it right. Two minutes and twenty-seven seconds. Basically the Falcons ran 2-minute drills all game long without having to rush things. Even taking out the drive after the big punt return, the average time of the other six drives was 2:42. I have no words to describe how bad the Raiders’ defense was.

Now we can go back to the drama.

Down by two scores the Raiders had 4:35 to do something. With a hurry up, no-huddle offense and a few smart plays by receivers going out of bounds, Carr engineered a scoring drive in 2:15. TD by Andre Holmes, making it a 1-possession game. By that time the Raiders still had all three timeouts and the 2-minute warning to play with. All signs pointed to an on-side kick, but given Seabass’ inability to make such a play, the coaches showed faith in the defense (God knows based on what) and decided to give the ball back to the Falcons. Now the defense had to show something (or at least show up), right?

No. Nope. Zero. The defense again showed nothing and in a critical 3rd and 3 at the Falcons 20-yard line, they spread the offense with Sanu lined up at the slot. D.J. Hayden was supposed to cover him, but for some inexplicable reason he backed off about 5 yards instead of playing tight. I’m not sure what was going on inside Hayden’s head. Jesus Christ. The Falcons needed 3 yards. Three. Did Hayden think they were going long to give Sanu that kind of cushion? Come on. Use your brain, damn it! I’m not a fan of the Wonderlic Test, but some players seem to be really dumb.

So the Falcons only needed 3 yards and got 15 after Hayden’s miserable defense. First down with 1:49 remaining and the Raiders had to use its second and third timeouts. Then the defense finally made a stop and with 10 seconds on the clock the Falcons punted. A huge, very high punt which took 8 seconds to go out of bounds for a touchback. 2 seconds left. A bunch of lateral and backwards passes later, the game was over.

A game to be forgotten by the fans and to be long remembered by the coaches and players, so they do not repeat that bizarre performance.

See you on Sunday when Smith and Heeney will welcome DeMarco Murray, Derrick Henry, Delaine Walker and Tajae Sharp to our living room, I mean, the middle of our defense.

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