Busters
OT Alex Leatherwood, LG John Simpson
For the third straight week to begin this season, Leatherwood finds himself among the Busters. This time as Top Buster, joined by John Simpson. Most failed Raiders drives had either Simpson or Leatherwood’s fingerprints all over it.
The first possession of the game ended with a three-and-out when on third and s, Simpson lost Christian Wilkinson to get Carr sacked. In the first play of the next drive, Leatherwood gave up a run stuff. On the first play of the drive after that Simpson gave up a run stuff. And we’re off!
A high snap from Andre James along with the intentional grounding penalty killed the Raiders’ next drive. But just to make sure, Leatherwood gave up a hit on Carr, causing a rushed pass that fell incomplete out of bounds. Leatherwood would start the very next drive by giving up another hit on Carr that again led to an incompletion. And he gave up a run stuff on the drive after that.
On the first drive of the third quarter, Leatherwood gave up another hit on Carr, this time luckily he got the pass away and completed it before getting walloped.
After Simpson seemed to get away with a holding on the Raiders’ TD drive in the third, he didn’t get away with it later in the third. A few plays later, Leatherwood gave up a run stuff.
Late in the fourth quarter, with the Raiders in need of running clock, Simpson gave up two run stuffs, one for a loss. And the Raiders went three-and-out. To his credit, on the Raiders’ final drive of overtime, Simpson laid the key block on a Barber 27-yard run. Leatherwood would give up one more run stuff, but the Raiders were already in field goal range to put the game away.
HC Jon Gruden
These slow starts can’t continue. At some point, the Raiders have to start fast. As it stands they are riding a nine-game streak of not scoring on the opening drive. In this game, they didn’t score on their first three drives. And found themselves down 14-0 by the time they took the field again for their fourth possession.
The third possession stalled at their own 34-yard-line. Gruden opted to go bold for it on fourth and one. He called a run up the middle (of course) and it was stopped for no gain, giving the Dolphins the ball already in scoring range. They did one better, though, scoring a touchdown in four plays.
This game could’ve been put away so many times. And the Raiders offense just kept dangling the game for the Dolphins to take. The first best chance they had to end the game in regulation came when they got the ball with 4:29 left in the fourth quarter. Two straight unglamorous runs up the middle yielded a net minus one yard, setting up third and 11. The Dolphins blitzed and no one was there to pick it up, so Carr was sacked. They took a grand total of 50 seconds off the clock and even left the Dolphins with a timeout.
The Dolphins would use every bit of the 3:22 they had and their timeout and drove down for the game-tying score to send it to overtime.
K Daniel Carlson
All these perfect games and long field goals aren’t worth much if you miss the easy ones. I say the Raiders’ first best chance to put the game away came late in the fourth quarter. But in reality, they wouldn’t have needed to put the game away on that possession had Carlson not missed an extra point to lead out the quarter.
With the score at 25-14, all the Dolphins needed to do was add a field goal — which they did — to make it a one-score game. From there they needed only to score a touchdown — which they did — and a two-point conversion — which they also did — to tie it up. Carlson makes that extra point and the end of that game has far less drama.
LB Divine Deablo
There was one other golden opportunity for the Raiders to seal this one. It came midway through the overtime period. The Raiders had already scored on their opening drive, forcing the Dolphins to answer with a score or lose.
They would find themselves in fourth and 20 in need of a big play. They don’t get it, it’s ball game. But they did get it. Brissett escaped the pocket and found Mike Gisecki for a 27-yard completion and it was Deablo who was beaten on the play.
Deablo had already given up a seven-yard reception on third and five on the Dolphins drive in the fourth to pull to within one score. Not great for the former safety to be giving up catches at the most crucial times.
TE Foster Moreau
Quite a rough game for Moreau. And that’s even if you say he was not at fault on the Carr pick-six. Carr copped to it and I believe him because it appeared as if Moreau was making the right call to stop his route against the zone. But, as I said, even without that, Moreau had a rough one.
The fourth and one in which Gruden elected to go for it, was a fourth and one because on third and one Moreau gave up a run stuff for no gain. That ended that drive. The next drive ended with Moreau’s only catch. It went for eight yards on third and 28. Not his fault, really, but if that’s your only stat on offense, that ain’t great.
To be fair, Moreau did have a couple of blocks on the Raiders’ scoring drive to start the third quarter. But he was also flagged for offensive pass interference that backed the Raiders up from the 12 to the 22-yard-line.
The final play of the third quarter saw Moreau get blocked onto his back to put pressure in Carr’s face on an incompletion. Then the first drive of the overtime period Moreau gave up two run stuffs. To say he’s had better days would be a considerable understatement.
[vertical-gallery id=83761]
[lawrence-newsletter]