There was the wrong kind of history made in the Raiders, Vikings game Sunday. It was the first game in Raiders history where both teams were scoreless in the fourth quarter.
And then the game ended with a 3-0 Vikings win.
This was how the Raiders offense performed coming out of their bye week.
Head coach Antonio Pierce said their primary focus during the bye was coming out stronger in the third quarter. The team had been starting fast, but then fading after that, leading to back-to-back losses in which they scored a combined three points.
Sunday against the Vikings, the offense started the game flat and continued that throughout.
Each team punted eight times. But the Vikings had twice as many first downs (16) as the Raiders (8).
As for the second half, the Vikings had eight of their 16 first downs while the Raiders had just two first downs while punting four times and turning the ball over twice.
One of those first downs was a 38-yard catch and run by Hunter Renfrow that put the Raiders at the Minnesota 11. But a holding penalty on Dylan Parham then a fumble by Renfrow stopped the Raiders scoring hopes and gave the Vikings the ball back.
“We’ll evaluate everything going forward,” said Pierce. “Whole football program. Our whole program. Everybody. Got to win. It ain’t good enough.”
“No excuses. It is shocking. Plenty of time to prepare for an opponent to do what it did, nothing new. Just poor coaching, poor performance by the players. It starts with myself.”
To be fair, the defense was once again on point. It’s extraordinary to hold a team scoreless for 58 minutes and then only give up a single field goal.
All told, the Vikings got within scoring range three times in the game. The first one they missed the field goal. The second came with two minutes left in the game. And the final one they opted for a pooch punt with seven seconds left.
The microscope should be placed on offensive coordinator Bo Hardegree as well as QB Aidan O’Connell most of all. Whether that means a change at either position is forthcoming is hard to say. Mainly because, with the team sitting at 5-8 and just four games left in the season, there’s only so much more blood you can squeeze out of that orange.