The Ballers were made up mostly of defensive players. It was the offense and special teams that doomed the Raiders in this one. So, the makeup the Busters may not surprise you.
Busters
QB Desmond Ridder
This offense was severely hampered by the limitations of Ridder. He had several opportunities in this game, provided by the Raiders defense, on which he couldn’t capitalize.
Only once in the first three quarters did the Raiders get past the 50-yard-line. And even the one that did move into Atlanta territory ended with two bad throws by Ridder. Both were for Brock Bowers, the first was too low and the other was an overthrow and the Raiders settled for a long field goal.
Just before the half, he finally connected for a decent gain to Bowers. Then followed it up with another bad overthrow to Bowers and then took a sack to send the two teams to the locker room with a 9-3 Falcons lead.
The third quarter saw the Raiders offense convert one first down. One. The first possession, Ridder was sacked twice, neither were the fault of his Oline. Then after the only first down — on an Alexander Mattison run — he overthrew Tre Tucker, nearly threw an interception, and rolled out right and threw the ball away. He had one more three-and-out in the quarter.
To lead out the fourth quarter, the Raiders possession ended with two incompletions — one on an overthrown screen pass — and Ridder getting sacked. Again, it was not the fault of his Oline. Next series lasted two plays with Ridder throwing an interception, giving the Falcons the ball already in scoring range. It was just luck that they missed the field goal.
Most of Ridder’s completed passes came on the final two drives. But being flagged for a delay of game on fourth and three certainly didn’t help matters. It meant it would take an amazing play by Ameer Abdullah to keep hope alive.
STC Tom McMahon, S Chris Smith II
When’s the last time you saw three blocked kicks by one team in one game? I can’t recall ever seeing it before. But that’s what happened in this game.
Two of the blocked were on punts. Chris Smith was the personal protector and was blocking no one while a free runner got to AJ Cole. One of the blocks was a deflection that caused a punt to travel just 30 yards. The other was a full on block. Both gave the Falcons great field position.
The other block was on the extra point after the late touchdown. In this case, Michael Mayer was left to try and block two players on his own and that didn’t work out well.
Smith also missed the tackle on a 38-yard return to the 45-yard-line.
OC Scott Turner
Four times the Raiders offense started a drive inside their own ten-yard-line. And despite being backed up against their own end zone, Ridder lined up in the shotgun each time, often times handing the ball off. That’s a dangerous play as it mean the runner basically has three yards they have to run with the ball before they even reach the line of scrimmage.
The first time they did this was on a drive that started at their own three-yard-line. It led to consecutive tackles for loss and a safety to give the Falcons a 9-3 lead.
They did it again from their own three in the third quarter. Similar result. This time it was a run for no gain to start things off followed by two short catches and a punt.
The final time, they led out with another run for a loss. And the next play Ridder threw an interception to give the Falcons the ball in scoring range.
CB Jack Jones
The Falcons’ only touchdown was from some easy film study. Last week Jones bit on a sluggo off a pump fake for a long completion. So, with the Falcons at the Vegas 30-yard-line, they said ‘hey, let’s do that too’. And, so they did. And Jones bit, leaving Drake London wide open for the long touchdown.
On their second scoring drive, he gave up an eight-yard first down run and on their third scoring drive, he gave up a five-yard catch on third-and-four that put them in field goal range.
WR Jakobi Meyers
The first drive of the game, Meyers was given the ball on an end around and set up to pass the ball. But his target was double covered, so he instead took the sack for a ten-yard loss.
The next time they looked to Meyer, was to lead out the third quarter. He made the catch but pushed off and was called for offensive pass interference.
Next pass for him, he couldn’t get to it and it was knocked away. His first catch didn’t come until there was just over five minutes left in the game. To his credit, he had three catches on the drive for 26 yards and the Raiders would score the TD on the drive.
The final drive, he had a couple more catches. But also had one in his hands get knocked out on the way down. And on the hail mary on the final play, he let Jesse Bates high point him to make the interception.
C Jackson Powers-Johnson
JPJ gave up run stuffs for a loss on each of the first two possessions. The second leading to a three-and-out. Even on the field goal drive, he found himself blocking no one while the run was stuffed at the line.
The Raiders running backs averaged 2.17 yards per carry in the game on 17 carries. And while that certainly doesn’t fall on him alone, there weren’t any instances in which he was the key block on a run
T DJ Glaze
Overall, he seemed to have a decent game. But his holding penalty on the final drive was a killer. He was completely beaten on the play and his hold was about as obvious as you’ll see. It would take the Raiders four plays to make up for it, taking 44 vital seconds off the clock. Which ultimately meant the game hinged on Hail Mary passes, which is never a great bet.