There wouldn’t have been a need for heroics had the Raiders not put themselves in a hole in this game. And it was pretty obvious at times what the problem was.
Busters
LT Kolton Miller, LG Andrus Peat, RT Thayer Munford
Let’s be clear, no one on this offensive line was good. The run game was historically bad and that falls on everyone. But these three were SO bad, they get special mention.
Last week Kolton Miller had what seemed to me to be the worst game of his career. Well, that wasn’t a fluke. He had another brutal game in this one.
Miller gave up a sack on the very first play of the game. And it was a strip sack which he luckily fell on or the Raiders would have been looking at going down a score seconds into this one.
Getting the start next to him was Andrus Peat, taking the place of Cody Whitehair. Three plays in, he was shucked out of the way to give up a run stuff for a two-yard loss. The Raiders moved backward on two of their first three plays and punted it away.
Second drive, Miller didn’t block the end to give up a free sack on third down.
The second quarter, the Raiders finally got a first down. They even drove into scoring range. But it ended with Peat missing his block to give up a tackle for loss, leading to a 53-yard field goal.
They got into scoring range again later in the second quarter. But Munford was beat around the edge and since Peat was also beaten up the middle, Minshew had nowhere to go and was sacked, leading to a 51-yard field goal.
Peat was sent back to the bench for the second and Cody Whitehair took over.
Munford had a disastrous possession in the third quarter. Starting out by blocking no one to give up a run stuff. Then two plays later losing his block to give up another run stuff for no gain, following immediately be giving up a tackle for loss. They convert on third and long and ended up turning it over on downs.
The offense may have come up late in this one, but the run game never did. And Minshew still had to overcome poor pass blocking as well. Miller gave up another sack, as did Munford.
S Tre’von Moehrig, S Marcus Epps
Weird to think all the starting cornerbacks are Ballers and both starting safeties are Busters. Not sure I’ve seen that happen before.
The biggest play of the Ravens first drive of the game was a 19-yard catch given up by Epps on third and seven. And they got on the board with a field goal.
The next Ravens scoring drive started with Moehrig giving up a 17-yard catch. And the final scoring drive of the first half saw Moehrig give up an eight-yard catch that put them in scoring range at the 34.
They would go for a touchdown to open the third quarter and the big play was a 30-yard run by Derrick Henry on which Epps missed the tackle near the line. Two plays later, Moehrig gave up the touchdown catch from eight yards out.
To begin the fourth quarter, the Ravens would drive for another TD. They would drive into Vegas territory at the 48 and Epps would miss a tackle to give up a 15-yard run. Two plays later came the biggest play of the drive with Epps getting blocked to give up a 17-yard run and Moehrig tacking on a few more with a late hit out of bounds call. This put the Ravens in first and goal at the six-yard-line. They scored two plays later.
DE Charles Snowden
That first touchdown drive to start the third quarter saw Derrick Henry break off a 30-yard run. He got the edge to begin with because Snowden was blocked. Then Snowden tried to recover and chase Henry down only to embarrassed by a wicked stiff arm.
Their second touchdown drive, that 17-yard run mentioned a couple paragraphs back began with Snowden missing a tackle. He showed some pass rushing prowess in the preseason, but his tackling leaves much to be desired.