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Raiders CB Nate Hobbs suffered an ankle injury Week 9 against the Bengals and had to be carted off the field.
Not even halfway through the second quarter and the injuries are piling up for the Raiders in Cincinnati. The scariest one might be Nate Hobbs, who had to be carted off the field.
He was quckly deemed Questionable to return with an ankle injury.
UPDATE: He was later downgraded to Doubtful to return.
Hobbs is the best cornerback on the Raiders roster, so his loss is significant.
Picking out the individual performances in the Raiders Week 7 loss to the Rams.
At some point we should just call all these Raiders loss to Raiders. Because it doesn’t seem to matter the team in the other jersey, the Raiders real opponent each week is themselves.
That being said, there are a few players who stepped up and did their part to try and pull out the win. Even if their efforts fell short. As per usual, we will start with them before we feature the failures.
Moehrig was sent on the blitz several times in this game. To great results. He was sent on third down on the Rams first drive and nailed Matt Stafford to force an incomplete pass. He would then assist on a run stuff for a three-and-out in the second quarter.
He got in the backfield again for a tackle for loss to end a drive early in the third quarter. Then on the Rams’ final two drives, he had a pressure on an incompletion and a run stuff, finishing second on the team with six combined tackles, one for a loss, a QB hit and a pass breakup.
Consecutive runs of 13 and 12 yards led out the Raiders’ first scoring drive. He would add a five-yard run later in that drive to help the Raiders jump to a 3-0 lead to begin the second quarter.
After falling down 14-3 late in the second quarter, the Raiders needed to go on a drive. And they did that courtesy of Mattison, who had two runs for a first down and a 17-yard screen that put them in field goal range.
Four runs for 21 yards set the Raiders up for their third score of the game in the third quarter. Mattison had 92 yards on the ground and 123 yards from scrimmage on 26 touches.
Tight coverage by Bennett set up a third and long that would lead to a punt on the Rams’ second drive. After the Raiders took a 3-0 lead early in the second, Hobbs’ run stuff on 4th and one gave the Raiders the ball back with a turnover on downs.
Bennett ended the Rams first possession of the third quarter with a three-and-out by breaking up the pass on third down.
With the fourth quarter looming, the Raiders needed a score to give them a chance. They got that score when Robert Spillane got a hand on a pass and Hobbs picked it off and returned it 35 yards to the LA 14-yard-line. That made it a one-score game at 20-12.
The following drive ended with Bennett in tight coverage in the end zone for an incompletion and the field goal missed off the upright. And the final Rams possession ended with Hobbs making the tackle short of the sticks on third down.
The first time the Raiders got in scoring position in the game was off of his 25-yard catch and run. Most of that was YAC; something he has become known for.
By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, Bowers already had six catches for 64 yards and the Raiders were one score away. They looked to Bowers early and often on their drive to try and tie it up. He had three first down catches on the first five plays. Two plays later, he was the lead blocked on a first down run on fourth down.
He would finish the game with ten catches for 93 yards which was one catch shy of the entire total for the rest of the team (11).
His first tackle was a run stuff at the line that ended the Rams’ second drive. He ended another Rams’ possession in the second quarter with another run stuff. He added another run stop in the fourth quarter to finished tied for second on the team in tackles (6).
Though it’s never a good thing when your kicker scores all your points, at least he was steady. Carlson made all five of his field goals in the game with the longest coming from 47 yards.
Singling out the many poor performances in the Raiders Week 3 loss to Panthers
Welcome to the primary portion of the program. There was a lot more bad news in this one than good. In fact, it wasn’t all that easy to find anything good to say about this performance by the Raiders.
So, let’s not belabor the point any longer.
Run, run, pass. Run, run, pass. Run, run, pass. Sensing a pattern? Yeah? Well, you’re not alone. The Raiders opponents do too. Perhaps Getsy thinks it’s like a pendulum that will lull opposing defenses to sleep because that is his approach so often, it’s downright maddening.
If this were a situation where the Raiders were having some success, it would be one thing. But they’re not. For whatever reason they are not running the ball at an NFL level. And you have to wonder if it’s the scheme that’s the problem because this wasn’t the case last season. Quite the contrary actually, they were the best running team in the league the final four games of last season. Now they’re the worst.
Four times on the first three drives of this game the Raiders started a series with consecutive runs. One of those they did three straight runs. Only once did they get a first down on the ground. And it wasn’t the one where they ran it three straight times! That one they went for it on fourth down and didn’t pick it up. The defensive backfield literally stood in a line three yards off the line and all the Raiders’ receivers ran that far. Minshew threw for Brock Bowers and it was knocked down easily. Terrible play call against the defense designed to stop that very thing.
Down 21-7 going into the third quarter, and you’ll never guess what they did then. Run. Run. Pass. Punt. So, they were down 24-7 before they finally stopped doing that.
This is a replay of the first two games. They bang their heads against a wall for three quarters and then try to make a late comeback. The defense was able to keep them in it the first two weeks. That didn’t happen this time. And it should never have to happen that way.
Something needs to change right now because right now their run game is broken. Whether it’s moving away from zone blocking, leaning more on the passing game, or just mixing things up a bit more to keep the defense honest.
Whatever he found in the fourth quarter in Baltimore he lost again. Too often in this game he seemed gun shy, pulling his passes back, dancing around the pocket, and bouncing off his linemen like a pinball before either getting sacked or throwing it away.
Through three quarters — remember that’s when the game ended for all intents and purposes — he had completed 10 passes for 127 yards and no touchdowns. Most of his yards came on one completion to Tre Tucker for 54 yards. That was one of just four first downs he had through the air.
Adams wasn’t helping things much. He had two drive killing drops in the second quarter alone. The first one came on third and short to end the drive. The second one took them out of field goal range and Daniel Carlson just missed the 57-yard attempt wide left at the half.
A week ago we were celebrating their work on the outside. Not so much this week. This week Andy Dalton made burnt toast out of them all.
The first drive Hobbs gave up a 17-yard catch and the touchdown catch from six yards out.
Second drive, Bennett gave up a 24-yard catch on third-and-14, Tre’von Moehrig gave up a 35-yard catch and run, and Jones gave up the touchdown on third-and-goal from the five.
Their third touchdown drive saw Hobbs give up a catch to Diontae Johnson, then try to chase him down only to whiff on the tackle for a 35-yard play. The next play Jones gave up a 31-yard touchdown catch to Adam Thielan.
The final touchdown drive early in the fourth quarter started with Bennett giving up an 11-yard catch. Then Jones missed a tackle on a 14-yard run, Bennett missed a tackle on a five-yard run, and on third down, Bennett was flagged for pass interference in the end zone to put the Panthers in first and goal from the one. They punched it in two plays later to go up 33-7.
Jones added to his poor day when he didn’t bother to try and make the tackle on a ten-yard run that led many to accuse him of being the player Antonio Pierce was referring to when he said players were making “business decisions” in the game.
I don’t know if he’s just trying to stick with what he thinks he’s trying to do or what. But there were so many times he just seemed to run right into a tackle or right in to the back of his own lineman. One of those times was the second play for the offense when he landed on the legs of Thayer Munford, causing him to leave the game with an injury and not return.
He was having much more success late last season. Now he looks like the least effective running back on this team. He’s averaging just 3.2 yards per carry and despite his size and apparent strength, they don’t even use him at the goal line. They give it to Alexander Mattison who has two touchdowns this season as a result.
They’re just not getting any push up the middle. They aren’t creating any running lanes. The Raiders went for it on fourth down twice in the first three quarters. The first time Whitehair was driven back into Minshew’s lap as he threw. The other time it was a QB keeper that James got no push. Both attempts failed.
You know who was getting push? The Panthers offensive line. Often times it was Jenkins who was getting pushed around. Jenkins had one tackle in the first three quarters. It was on a six-yard first down run. He also gave up the Panthers’ final touchdown from one yard out.
Ballers for Raiders Week 2 win vs Ravens
What a game. Through much of this game it was looking like a replay of the season opener against the Chargers. Where the Raiders defense keeps it close while the offense flails and ultimately sees the opposing team put things together late to win it.
Even early into the fourth quarter, it still had that feel. The Ravens drove for a field goal to end the first half and a touchdown to begin the third quarter to make it a ten-point game. Meanwhile it was most of the way through the third quarter and the Raiders still hadn’t gotten in the end zone and were down by ten.
Then suddenly they turned it on and scored three straight times while the defense allowed one score and they pulled off the upset.
There were so many heroes, it was hard to pick a Top Baller this week. But I managed.
To be the biggest playmaker in a game full of playmakers is quite an accomplishment.
He led the team with ten combined tackles (eight solo) and nearly all of them were huge plays. The first Ravens drive featured two Spillane run stuffs for a net two yards and the third down tackle on a catch short of the sticks.
Spillane stalled another drive in the second quarter by tracking Lamar Jackson on a rollout to the right sideline to keep containment and force him to make a bad pass incomplete.
The Ravens got in the endzone on their first drive of the third quarter. But Spillane did his part to try and keep that from happening when he stuffed a run at the line on first and goal. The next drive, he intercepted a Lamar Jackson pass off a deflection to give the Raiders another shot with great field position. They took advantage of it to drive for their first touchdown, making that turnover crucial to the outcome.
The Raiders would pull within seven points midway through the fourth quarter, putting it in the hands of the defense to give them a shot to tie it up. They did the job too, with Spillane batted down Jackson’s pass on third down to send the Ravens offense away with a three-and-out.
After the offense drove for a game-tying touchdown, the defense came out to try and keep the Ravens from driving for the game winner. Spillane followed up a big sack by Maxx Crosby with a run stuff for no gain. The Ravens couldn’t make up the third and long, giving the Raiders a chance to win it in regulation. And they did just that.
He was his usual holy terror self, which is not always the easiest thing to do against a multifaceted quarterback like Lamar Jackson.
Crsoby had a run stuff on the Ravens’ first play from scrimmage and a sack on the fourth play. Then he had a run tackle for loss on the second possession, leading to a three-and-out. So, yeah, it was shaping up to be a long day keeping the Condor contained.
First play of the second quarter was another Crosby run stuff for a loss, leading to another three-and-out. He added a batted pass on the next drive.
After the Raiders tied it up at 23-23 midway through the fourth, Crosby came flying up the gut right into to Jackson’s face for a nine-yard sack. That sealed the Ravens’ fate.
We pick up the action in the third quarter. That’s when the Raiders offense started to get things rolling. The first big completion went for 25 yards to Brock Bowers to put them in scoring range. But ultimately the Raiders could go for it on the 4th and short and fail, with Minshew’s pass for Davante a bit short and Adams unable to make the catch around a defender. But it was a sign of things to come.
The Raiders defense would take the ball back and the offense returned to mount another drive. The big play saw Minshew stand tall in the pocket as he waited for something to open up and then Bowers came back to his QB to make the catch inside the five and put the Raiders in first and goal at the one. They punched it in on the next play.
Next possession they were on the move again. It featured consecutive connections with Adams for 26 yards and 30 yards. The 26-yarder came on a perfect pass from Minshew, throwing it before Adams had even made his break, so he turned the find the ball right there. The 30-yard catch was especially impressive, with Adams leaning out of bounds, dragging his toes.
That drive ended in a field goal, which meant a touchdown was needed to tie it up. First play of the Raiders next drive, had well placed ball from Minshew with Davante’s notorious late hands ensuring the defender had no shot at it up the left sideline for 29 yards. Bowers got hte next first own on a 15-yard grab. Then Bowers would convert on third down with an 11-yard catch to put the Raiders in first and goal at the nine. Adams was interfered with to put it at the one. Where Minshew had a masterful read option where he pulled it back and threw it over the defense to Adams for the game-tying touchdown.
Just like the above trio, I just couldn’t separate these guys. Bennett showed up first with a huge pass breakup on a deep ball attempt up the left sideline in the second quarter. This forced a 56-yard field goal attempt which Justin Tucker missed wide.
The next drive began with a coverage incompletion by Jones. Bennett would also force an incompletion on the drive with tight coverage. And finally, Jones made the tackle short of the first down to force the Ravens to settled for a field goal.
The third quarter saw Bennett break up another pass. This time Spillane was there to intercept it off the deflection. The takeaway led to the Raiders getting their first touchdown of the day.
With the Raiders making a push, and within a score, Jones helped that effort by stopping Lamar Jackson for a loss on a scramble. Jones would then effectively end the game with a pass breakup on a deep attempt up the right sideline that looked for a moment to be a catch that would have been enough for the Ravens to tie it up. Clutch.
Nate Hobbs just simply locked it up on the day, giving up just one catch for 13 yards.
He was 4-for-4 on the day with field goals from 53 and 51 yards. That’s doing his job.
The Ravens have gone from a Super Bowl hopeful, to a team searching for answers after a shocking 26-23 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday.
The loss dropped Baltimore to 0-2 on the season, while creating more discourse centered on the offensive line, secondary, run-pass ratios, and Lamar Jackson. The disappointing loss also creates something of a hotseat for head coach John Harbaugh with a difficult matchup against the Cowboys looming.
Here are the top photos from Week 2.
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These Raiders players deserve to join NFL $10M+ APY club
Right now there are only eight NFL clubs who have fewer players making an average of $10 million per season than the Raiders (6). With some $34.5 million in cap room, the Raiders should seriously be thinking about making a few more players offers to keep them around for a while.
There are several players who are entering the last year of their contract who the Raiders would be very wise to lock up as soon as possible.
Not all of those players are going to command more than $10 million per season. But there are two who absolutely should, based on their talent and at the premium position they play.
Let’s start with:
The former third round pick out of Buffalo came on strong late last season when Antonio Pierce took over as interim head coach. And he has continued to lay claim to the starting defensive end spot opposite Maxx Crosby.
As Jon Gruden notoriously said not long after stupidly trading away Khalil Mack: “Good pass rushers are hard to find.” Well, the Raiders tapped into Buffalo again and found another one. And this time they can’t let him get away.
Koonce has given every indication so far that his play late last season wasn’t a fluke. He developed. And if the Raiders would like to keep that development in house, they need to lock him up.
Edge rushers is one of the highest paying positions in football. Maxx Crosby’s average of $23.5 million per season is still ninth in the league. The only positions with more overall value in the league than that are quarterback and wide receiver.
If the Raiders were to give Koonce a contract that averaged $10 million per season, that would land him 35th among edge rushers. Though you could understand if maybe Koonce and his agent would rather wait until after this season to see if he could get an even better contract.
No player on this team is more deserving of a new contract than Hobbs. He’s still playing on his fifth round rookie contract and he outplayed that… well, as a rookie. He’s been the best cornerback on this team for three seasons now and asking for a contract that would put him in the top ten at his position wouldn’t be far fetched.
Something around $15 million per season would land Hobbs in the top ten at his position. And, for what it’s worth, a contract that paid him $10 million per season would land him at 18th at his position.
A deal with Hobbs should be getting done. He is part of the heart and soul of this defense and this team as a whole, he’s proven he’s worth it, and the Raiders can absolutely afford it right now.
Also see: Top 5 players Raiders should offer extensions prior to 2024 season
It may have been a change of play style for the Raiders camp, but who controlled things remained the same. The defense continued to dominate. I asked Antonio Pierce prior to practice who he expects will benefit the most from pads going on, and he …
It may have been a change of play style for the Raiders camp, but who controlled things remained the same. The defense continued to dominate.
I asked Antonio Pierce prior to practice who he expects will benefit the most from pads going on, and he said the offense without question. And he brought in a special guest last night to try and get them pumped up for it.
“If I had to predict today, I think the offensive line is going to get after it,” said Pierce. “Richie Incognito talked to the team last night. It was pretty intense. Whatever you think he said, he said.”
The offensive line certainly came out with intensity. In the early going, Andrus Peat pancake blocked Tyree Wilson to the turf. And midway through practice Thayer Munford injured his hand on a play, only to get it wrapped up and return to the field a bit later.
As far as how the rest of the offense performed, it was…not great.
The talk the offense had been doing prior to today was that of ‘just wait until pads go on.’ Well pads were on and thus far they have not backed up their words.
No question the Raiders have a very good defense. It shows for sure. But the issues with the offense go well beyond the quality of defense they’re facing.
Mostly it continues to be the quarterback play that plagues the offensive play for the Raiders in camp. The passes are just not getting to the receivers consistently.
I could count on one hand how many solid completions there were on the day. O’Connell had one good connection on a deep corner route to Jakobi Meyers.
Other than that it was a whole lotta bad for the offense.
The defense was flying around, swarming, and jawing all day long.
The closest Davante Adams came to making a play was a pass that looked like it might get there, but he had his jersey tugged on, drawing a pass interference call. And Tre Tucker simply could not get open.
Play after play, Tucker had a defender on his hip. Sometimes it was Jakorian Bennett, sometimes it was Nate Hobbs, and once it was Jack Jones. But it didn’t matter. The result was the same. Incomplete.
It wasn’t until the final drive of the day that the offense got anything going at all. It was Gardner Minshew running the offense. Kristian Fulton had a leaping grab over the middle, then DJ Turner caught one on a cross, and finally Minshew found Alex Bachman on an out to put the team at the 18 for a field goal. It was a relative positive in a day without much before that.
For the defense’s part, they were fired up and stopping everything, including the ground game. Adam Butler had a couple stops and he was sure to let the offense know on each of them, barking at them and running into the backfield to taunt them. Christian Wilkins did some dancing and talking as well.
The one thing you didn’t see much of were turnovers. There were two fumbled handoffs, one between O’Connell and Zamir White and the other between Anthony Brown and Brittain Brown. Jack Jones nearly had a pick on an ugly O’Connell pass after he was basically sacked by Maxx Crosby.
New special teams rules makes for a very interesting battle for Raiders return specialists.
Kick returns this season are going to be a whole new experience. One that may require a whole new breed of return specialists. Punt returns should stay relatively the same. But there could still be a battle for who gets that job this season.
The new kickoff rules are such that neither team moves until the ball lands. So, there will be no running start for the coverage team. That means the previous ideas of what a kick returner will look like have changed.
It becomes a new job with a new set of skills that should be more akin to that of a running back than a speedy wide receiver or cornerback as was previously most common. Though some receivers could also thrive in this role. There are a lot of unknowns and therefore a position truly up for grabs.
For that reason, I can’t do a simple player vs player here.
A topic of discussion when the team drafted Dylan Laube in the sixth round of April’s draft was that perhaps his skillset would translate perfectly to the new kick return duties. We shall see.
Second year receiver Tre Tucker would figure to be the favorite for the punt returner job. Others who fielded punts in minicamp included Tyreik McAllister, Ameer Abdullah, Tulu Griffin, DJ Turner, and Nate Hobbs.
My take:
I must say, I don’t have one. Mainly because I don’t think the Raiders have one just yet. The rule is so new that there is a lot still to figure out. Each team’s special teams coordinator will have their own ideas of how to best attack the new rule. Who they like handling those duties will change as their plans change.
In the meantime, special teams may actually be something worth watching in camp and preseason this year. The hope being that there are fewer touchbacks and therefore kick returns become a bigger part of the game than they were before.
No relationship more perfectly encapsulates the chemistry of new Raiders defense than that of Nate Hobbs and Jack Jones
The first day of Raiders minicamp they were playing a lot of old school music over the systems. And at one point, they played Johnny Kemp’s classic banger “Just got paid” and cornerbacks Jack Jones and Nate Hobbs started doing a synchronized dance to it. Not unlike the dance from the music video itself.
— Levi Damien (@LeviDamien) June 11, 2024
It was pretty hilarious and the spontaneous dance was a perfect display of the bond of friendship these two players have. Not to mention the kind of energy this Raiders defense has had since midway through last season.
It’s no coincidence that energy arrived right around the time Jack Jones joined the team. That isn’t to say it was Jack Jones who is the reason for it. He’s not. Mainly it was the ousting of Josh McDaniels and the promotion of Antonio Pierce to interim head coach.
But one of first moves Pierce made as head coach was to sign Jones — who Pierce had coached in high school and college — who was waived by the Patriots.
Jones didn’t fit in with “the Patriot Way.” So, it was a good thing the Raiders had just gutted their team of that mindset.
When he arrived, he fit right in with his new teammates. Particularly with Hobbs.
“I feel like we have a lot of things in common,” Hobbs said of Jones. “I think he’s the guy – you can just tell he goes against the grain a little bit he’s just a dog, you can’t ever count him out. He’ll go toe to toe with anybody, he has that type of mentality. I feel like outside of football, we have kind of the same mentality. We’re both unpredictable, just never know what they’re going to do, but have a cool side to him. He’s just my dog, for real and a thorough dude, so I mess with him.”
Their lockers are next to each other at the stadium and following the season finale last seaon, they were both very vocal about wanting Pierce back as head coach. Echoing the sentiment shares by their teammates that Pierce allows them to be themselves.
Other players on the defense felt their best selves come out under Pierce including defensive linemen Malcolm Koonce, Maxx Crosby, and Adam Butler.
Crosby had arrived as a player long before that, but Butler and Koonce broke out in a big way. Koonce had eight sacks in nine games and Butler had sacks in each of the final three games and was made a priority to re-sign this offseason.
Crosby talked about the chemistry he and Butler had early on last offseason, but it really showed up on the field down the stretch last season.
Relationships like Crosby and Butler, Hobbs and Jones remain intact from last season and are looking to continue the momentum that had them finish the season as one of the league’s best defenses.
Jakorian Bennett opens Raiders minicamp with a statement interception
The next phase of the Raiders offseason began today with the start of their three-day mandatory minicamp. These practices are designed to mimic the start of training camp in order to give the players a taste of what to expect when they return in five weeks to get ready for the season.
For that reason, these practices are the most important thus far this offseason.
One player who has been making a case to be a starter this season is second-year cornerback Jakorian Bennett. He’s been lining up with the ones all offseason and today, he showed everyone why.
One a play late in practice, he broke the ice with the first takeaway for the Raiders defense. Aidan O’Connell rolled left and threw it short where Bennett stepped in front of it and hauled it in.
O’Connell had been having a decent practice prior to that, including a perfect throw to the back left corner of the end zone for Jalen Guyton. But that one was one he would like to have back.
For Bennett’s part, he is in a competition with veteran former starter Brandon Facyson to be the starter opposite Jack Jones, with Nate Hobbs manning the nickel spot. That interception should go a long way to making Bennett’s case and for the former fourth round pick to show he is ready to get the starting job back that he lost four games into his rookie season.
Hobbs took issue with a question suggesting that Bennett’s issue to start last season was a lack of confidence.
“I don’t like when people say ‘he’s trying to get confident’,” Hobbs said. “He’s confident. You’re in the NFL for a reason. Whether it looks like you got beat on the play and your confidence is down, that’s how it looks to the outside world. I feel like he’s a confident young man and he brings it every day. Some people need a little bit to get started. And when he gets started, he’s a competitor. And so he’s confident to me.”
Three seasons ago, Hobbs was in the same situation as Bennett was last season. Both were mid-round draft picks who were starters right out the gates. But Hobbs had instant success. Bennett struggled early on and it was clear he needed a bit more time to find his footing in the NFL and in this defense.
Now heading into his second season in the NFL and in the same scheme, this is when the team expects him to be ready.
