Busters
RT Brandon Parker, RG Alex Leatherwood, C Andre James, LG John Simpson, OLC Tom Cable
Once again, this young offensive line made life difficult for Derek Carr and the offense. I don’t normally put position coaches in the Ballers & Busters, but Cable is the one who blew up this once-dominant unit, thinking he was such a mastermind that he could spin silk from hog bristle.
False starts had already disrupted the Raiders’ first two drives. The third drive Parker made it three for three. This after giving up a run stuff on the first drive. Then on third and four from their own seven-yard-line, Andre James gave up the sack on Carr, who was just barely able to stay out of the end zone or it would have been a safety.
In the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter, Alex Leatherwood gave up a run stuff for a loss. The possession ended in a punt.
The next drive saw Andre James join the list of Raiders offensive linemen with a penalty when he was flagged for holding on a run play. The only guy not yet penalized was John Simpson. Later in that drive, he would rectify that.
On second and goal from the nine, Simpson held his man on a Jacobs run. I’ve seen people say it was ticky-tack, but it really wasn’t. It backed the Raiders up to the 19 and they settled for a field goal.
The Raiders’ final scoring drive looked like it started with a 19-yard screen pass to Josh Jacobs but it was wiped off the board due to Leatherwood being flagged for being illegally downfield.
The final drive got a big boost with a 30-yard play on a 15-yard dump pass plus a roughing the passer penalty. But two plays later Leatherwood and Parker didn’t properly switch off on a stunt and Carr was sacked to bring up third and 17.
Sometimes the Raiders were able to overcome the penalties and mistakes by this bunch, sometimes they weren’t. But they always seemed to make everything a little harder than it had to be.
S Tre’von Moehrig
Whether you want to fault Moehrig or not, he was the one in coverage on both of the Bengals’ touchdown passes in this game.
The first TD pass went to tight end CJ Uzomah and Moehrig were right there. He swiped down as the ball arrived, but it was too late. The ball was caught for the score.
The second TD was the most controversial play of this game. Joe Burrow ran out right toward the sideline and as he was jumping out, he threw for Tyler Boyd in the back of the end zone. The whistle blew just before the ball arrived. You can say the play should’ve been blown dead, and you’d be right, but had it been blown dead would only have screwed over the Bengals. Boyd was open and it wasn’t because Moehrig eased up after hearing the whistle.
Having the play blown dead because of the inadvertent whistle would only have bailed the Raiders out. It should never have happened, but just imagine if the tables were turned and the Raiders had a touchdown they rightfully scored taken off the board because of it. Just imagine.
DE Yannick Ngakoue
A major issue in this game was the overall lack of pressure that was being put on Joe Burrow. And it’s because the Raiders sack leader was completely taken out of the game. He had one late pressure on a play that led to a coverage incompletion. Other than that he was invisible.
The only other time I even noticed him was when he missed a tackle on a run that went for five yards. He had no stats of any kind despite playing 48 snaps (77%). And Joe Burrow picked the Raiders apart like a boiled chicken carcass.
RB Peyton Barber
It was already 10-3 in the first quarter after a long touchdown drive and a field goal off the Derek Carr fumble inside his own 20. On the ensuing kickoff, Barber was back to field it and had a savvy idea. The kick was headed toward the left corner and if he put a foot out of bounds before touching the ball, it would be a penalty on the Bengals that would put the ball at the 40.
Raiders fans will remember Dwayne Harris executing this maneuver to perfection a few years back. Well, Barber’s move was…less than perfect. He touched the ball first, then stepped out. That’s not a penalty. That’s just dumb. The result was the Raiders starting their drive at the two-yard line.
The terrible field position would nearly lead to a safety and a punt out of the back of their own end zone. Even with a 58-yard punt, the return had the Bengals starting their drive at the 45 and they would score again to make it 13-3. The Raiders never really recovered from that early deficit.
OC Greg Olson
These red zone failures are a big problem. The last two red-zone failures were examples of just how clunky this offense can be. And how seemingly incapable it is of executing in the hurry-up when it needs it most.
The Raiders had just over six minutes and they needed two scores. One had to be a TD. Ideally, you’d get that TD on the first drive, so that the final drive just needed to reach scoring range.
The Raiders offense has relied upon the run game late in games a few times recently and it has served them well. They abandoned it entirely in the fourth quarter, making a 10-point deficit seem like a 14-point lead or more.
In addition, the first drive saw the Raiders end up in fourth down twice because it took too long to get the play in, forcing them to call a timeout, leaving them with just one timeout left, which they used on the Bengals possession.
This meant they had to go their entire final drive in 1:51 with no timeouts. They moved to the nine-yard-line, but instead of either having a play in their back pocket to run quickly or having a timeout they could burn there, Carr came up and spiked it. There were still 30 seconds left on the clock, which is plenty of time to come up to the line and run a play, but no, the decision was to spike it which gave them just three shots at the end zone instead of four.
That’s just not a well-oiled machine and they needed it to be if they hoped to tie this one up and send it to overtime. They were sent home instead.
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