Early in the fourth quarter, the Raiders offense took the field and sliced up the Bengals defense with three completions for 75 yards and a touchdown. There have been a few times over the years where I’ve said ‘where’s that been all game?’ and this was definitely one of those times.
That drive was like something out of another time or another team. Because the rest of this game look very different.
It took 1:35 off the clock for the Raiders to go down and score that touchdown. The other 58:25 of the game the Raiders pass offense had 16 completions for 140 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception.
The three completions on that drive all went to tight ends. The first two to Darren Waller for 56 yards and the third to Foster Moreau for a 19-yard touchdown.
But as for the wide receivers? They had a grand total of five catches for 40 yards. Only one of those catches came in the first half. It went for four yards to Hunter Renfrow.
I attempted to ask quarterback Derek Carr about the wide receivers not being a big part of the offense in the game and he interrupted me to note that Waller got his catches, though, adding “We checked that box this week.”
It seemed like that was an answer designed for anyone who has criticized Carr and the Raiders for not getting the ball to Waller more often considering Waller is the best player on this team. Last week the Pro Bowl tight end had just 24 yards on four catches.
The problem with that is two-fold though. First of all, Carr’s emphasis should not be in checking off boxes from his critics first of all. Second of all, it shouldn’t be an either/or situation.
Waller had 116 yards on seven catches. His first four catches led to nothing though. That’s not Waller’s fault, it’s a bigger issue. After Waller had his catch, the offense did nothing else. So, yeah, great, you got the ball to your best player. Is that it? Anyone else in this offense able to get open and make a catch? How ’bout that new guy…Desean Jackson?
We’re into the second week with Jackson on this team and he has a total of one target. His first game it was completely understandable. He was new to the offense and played just nine snaps. You would have thought his snaps and targets would go up this week. His snaps may have, but his targets did not.
Jackson had zero targets in the game. And for an offense that had shown the previous two weeks how much it misses its deep threat, that’s kind of important.
“We came out flat. It was terrible. There’s not beating around it,” said Carr. “The last couple weeks we just take turns. We’re just really out of sync right now and no one’s coming to save us so we got to figure it out.”
Being “out of sync” or ‘not in rhythm’ has been a common theme for the Raiders during their three-game losing streak. The offense has been sputtering and the play calling has been seriously suspect. Most notably they went 1-for-7 on third down in this game after having gone 1-for-9 against the Chiefs last Sunday. Not having a balanced attack has been hurting them badly. Interesting that it was the player who got the lion’s share of the targets today who pointed this out.
“We have to be balanced as a unit,” said Waller, who had more targets (8) than the entire wide receiving corps combined (6). “Everybody has to make plays and we’ve shown that over the season that running backs can make plays in pass game, receivers, tight ends, anybody. We got to just be able to bring that on a consistent basis, week-to-week. But today we didn’t do that and we left the Defense on the field too long.”
The Raiders lost the time of possession battle 37:20 to 22:40 and the defense appeared pretty winded late. They didn’t do themselves any favors with some costly penalties including an offsides that negated a drive-ending sack and a roughing the passer penalty on a play that also would have led to a punt.
Those penalties helped lead to the Bengals’ first ten points. But even then, the defense played well enough to keep it a one-possession game heading into the fourth quarter.
But even the Raiders touchdown drive was so quick, the defense barely had time to catch their breath before coming back onto the field. The result was the Bengals just moving down the field on the next possession to finish it off with a touchdown.
There was still a glimmer of hope for the Raiders if the offense turn it on as they had on the previous drive and get back in the end zone. But Carr went to the Waller well one too many times and was picked off by Eli Apple. If that didn’t seal the deal, the ensuing touchdown did. Joe Mixon just trotted up the gut from 20 yards out against a worn out Raiders defense. A late sack fumble by Carr set the Bengals up for another field goal for the 32-13 result and another ugly blowout loss.
The Raider fall to 5-5 on the season. Moving in the wrong direction after a 5-2 start. They enter a short week before traveling to Dallas for Thanksgiving.