The Raiders were embarrassed in Week 7 against the Bears, allowing 30 points to Tyson Bagent. But with an additional day of rest and their starting quarterback returning to the lineup, there was some optimism that the Raiders could hang with the Lions in primetime.
But that hope quickly evaporated as the offense couldn’t get anything going all night long. After scoring just 12 points against the Bears, the Raiders had an even worse showing in Week 8.
Playing on Monday Night Football, the Raiders scored 14 points against the Lions. However, 7 of those were from Marcus Peters on a pick-six in the third quarter. The offense has not scored more than 19 points in any game this season and they failed to reach double-digits again on Monday.
Everyone is to blame for their poor offensive performance, but this was not a good game for Jimmy Garoppolo. He threw a terrible interception in the red zone, took far too many sacks and missed several wide-open receivers. He finished the game with 77 net passing yards on 27 dropbacks and a passer rating of 46.9.
Garoppolo was dealing with a back injury going into the week, but he was a massive issue and it might be time to consider making a quarterback change for the rest of the season. They can’t continue to put him out on the field with the offense struggling this much.
The Raiders drop to 3-5 on the season and are now in real danger of being out of playoff contention by Thanksgiving. They will host the Giants in Week 9, which might decide their fate this season. Needless to say, that is suddenly a must-win game if the Raiders want to stay in the hunt in the AFC.