For the most part, the Raiders’ rookie class did not perform well in Week 12 as players such as Josh Jacobs, Trayvon Mullen, and Hunter Renfrow all struggled. However, one Raider that quietly put on a nice performance was defensive end, Clelin Ferrell.

The 2019 season has been a rough one for Ferrell as fourth-round pick Maxx Crosby has out-produced him every step of the way. But on Sunday, Ferrell was one of the Raiders highest-graded defenders according to Pro Football Focus, finishing the game with an overall grade of 71.4:

It may have taken the better part of a season, but Clelin Ferrell finally delivered a highly graded game. He played 50 total snaps against the Jets in Week 12 — 26 in run defense, 23 in the pass-rush and one in coverage — and he recorded a quarterback hurry and two defensive stops against the run en route to a career-high single-game grade of 71.4. It wasn’t all good, however, as he also missed a tackle, meaning that he’s missed at least one tackle in seven of his 10 games as a pro.

While Ferrell still hasn’t lived up to his No. 4 pick status, he has been significantly better in the second half of the season. The Raiders continue to be patient with him because they know what his ceiling could be as a player.  And it’s exciting to see him slowly start putting it all together.

[vertical-gallery id=58364]

[lawrence-newsletter]

Hindsight is 20/20, but if you’d really thought about it ahead of time, the Raiders did have a lot of things working against them in their trip to New York to play the Jets Sunday. All of which suggested a big letdown was a real possibility.

That letdown was Derek Carr throwing for just 127 yards on 15 completions, Josh Jacobs rushing for only 34 yards on 10 carries — his fewest yards and yards per carry (3.4) of the season, several dropped passes, three fumbles, 208 net yards while allowing 401, and scoring just three points while giving up 34.

Gruden stepped in front of the media to offer up some of the potential reasons for the dropoff in play across the board.

“We had four straight games go down to the last play of the game,” said Gruden. “Four in a row. Houston, Detroit, the Chargers, Cincinnati. The team’s fighting hard. I think sometimes fatigue might be a problem. You know the six-hour flight, we were delayed two hours getting in, three-hour time change, East Coast kickoff at 1:00 was hard when I coached a veteran Raiders team years ago.

“We are not a lot of experienced people when it comes to rain and cold. And I’m not making any excuses, but hopefully, that got our attention, and it makes us better as we prepare for one of the best teams in football in another cold, nasty place.”

Four hard-fought games in a row, a long East Coast trip, early start time, and inclement weather in a hostile environment may sound like little things to those not playing in the game, but they are real factors that affect the outcomes of games. You can add that the Jets have been playing outstanding of late, and this game had some bad juju for the Raiders.

If this was a problem for the Raiders, it will only get worse next week when all these same factors will come into play and probably a lot worse.

It’s the annual trip to Arrowhead. Derek Carr’s personal house of horrors. The place he has never won and had some of the worst games of his career. Where the crowd gets really loud. And where it gets really cold in December.

Playing in frigid temperatures and bad weather is something learned through experience. It isn’t something Raiders coaching can teach.

“I’m not a genius. I’m not Thomas Edison. I don’t know how to do that,” Gruden said of preparing his team for playing in bad weather. “You know, we just gotta show pictures of people that are cold that deal with cold (laughs) I don’t know. We’re not going to overanalyze it, we did not play our best football, and as I said yesterday, we’re really excited about this team, these guys that we have. And I said some things to them after the game I think they all bought into and agree with.”

Oh, and the Chiefs are coming off a bye. So, fatigue certainly won’t be a factor for them.

[vertical-gallery id=58364]

[lawrence-newsletter]

Not only did the Raiders lose on Sunday to the New York Jets, but one of their most important rookies could miss the rest of the season with an injury.

According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, Hunter Renfrow is going to miss the next few weeks with a broken rib and punctured lung that occurred in Sunday’s contest.

#Raiders WR Hunter Renfrow broke a rib and punctured his lung in Sunday’s loss to the #Jets, sources say. Just a rookie, Renfrow has quickly developed into a key weapon for QB Derek Carr. It’s unclear at this point how long he’ll be out.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 25, 2019

Renfrow did not have a great game on Sunday and this might explain why. He had two drops on third down that seemed somewhat routine for him. Renfrow has caught 36 passes for 396 yards and two touchdowns this season for the Raiders. Look for fellow rookie Keelan Doss to get more action in his place this week versus Kansas City.

[vertical-gallery id=58364]

[lawrence-newsletter]

For the second time this season, Derek Carr was pulled early from a game that had gotten away from the Raiders. The other time was in week 7 against the Packers when following a Carr interception, and Aaron Rodgers threw his fifth TD pass to go up 42-17.

Clearly, 42-17 is a blowout. But that score happened with 6:28 left in the fourth quarter. Against the Jets on Sunday, Carr’s exit occurred much sooner. A whole quarter sooner.

With 6:32 left in the third quarter, Carr threw a pass over the middle for Tyrell Williams. Linebacker Neville Newitt was sitting in the box, reading Carr’s eyes. He was there to break up the pass for Williams, the ball popped in the air and was intercepted by safety Brian Poole and returned for a touchdown.

The score put the Jets up 34-3, with the Raiders only score coming on their opening drive of the game. Carr would come out for one last shot at putting points on the board. He would pick up one first down and the drive stalled.

The Jets would go three-and-out, and when the Raiders offense returned, it was led by Mike Glennon. Neither team would score in the fourth quarter as they were just riding this one out.

Carr would see 43 snaps (73%) or just under three-quarters of the snaps. After the game, he was asked about being pulled from the game, and he bristled at what he perceived to be misleading intentions behind it, responding, “It was for other reasons than you’re trying to make it seem.”

The most apparent reason behind Carr’s early exit is there’s no sense in risking injury in a five score game. Though, had the offense shown at all in this game that they could move the ball and/or put points on the board, perhaps he would have been given another drive or two to try to crawl back in it.

But Carr was 15 for 27 for 127 yards and an interception while Josh Jacobs had just 34 yards on 10 carries. There was zero indication the offense was suddenly going to show up, and Gruden called the fight.

Had Carr kept trotting out there into the fourth quarter, people would be loudly wondering why, and they’d be right to ask. The question should be how it got to that point in the first place. There has been and will continue to be plenty of answers to that over the coming days.

[vertical-gallery id=58364]

[lawrence-newsletter]

After a historic performance by their rookie class in Week 11, the Oakland Raiders struggled to do much of anything on Sunday against the Jets. Their young team just wasn’t ready to compete, and they were blown-out by an inferior roster.

Today, we will break down the performances from their entire draft class from 2019. Here is the team’s rookie report card after Week 12.

DE Clelin Ferrell: C-

It was another relatively quiet game for Clelin Ferrell, who recorded just three assisted tackles on the day. He did finish the game with an assisted tackle for a loss, but he was held in check for most of the afternoon. Ferrell has been significantly better in the second half of the season, but Sunday wasn’t his best performance by any means. Look for him to bounce back in Week 13 against the Chiefs.

RB Josh Jacobs:  D+

For most of the season, you can make the case that Josh Jacobs has not only been the best rookie running back in the league but, arguably, the NFL’s top back. He’s dominated whenever he has touched the ball, excelling after contact.

However, Sunday just wasn’t Jacobs’ day as he touched the ball only 11 times for 36 yards. The Jets put in a game-plan to take away the running game, and they were able to do just that, limiting Jacobs’ impact on the game. Once the game got out of hand, Jacobs no longer had a role as the team opted to use Jalen Richard in his place.

SS Johnathan Abram: N/A

The No. 27 pick in the 2019 NFL draft suffered a shoulder injury in Week 1 and was placed on the injured reserve list. With Karl Joseph hurt and expected to fit free agency this offseason, expect Abram to slide back into the starting lineup in 2020.

[lawrence-newsletter]

Week 12 wasn’t kind to the Oakland Raiders. Not only did they lose in humiliating fashion, but it was a game that the Raiders were favored in and needed to win to stay in the No. 6 seed in the AFC wild-card hit.

Several other wild-card contenders had big games in Week 12 as the Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, and Tennessee Titans all secured wins on Sunday. According to the New York Times playoff simulator, the Raiders playoff odds have dropped from 60 percent on Sunday morning, all the way down to 24 percent.

What is so discouraging about the Week 12 loss is that now Oakland will travel to Kansas City to face the Chiefs in what is essentially a must-win game. If Oakland were to lose that contest, they would drop to 6-6, and their playoff odds would decrease to 12 percent.

Oakland certainly isn’t out of the playoff hunt by any means, but their loss to the Jets set them back in a big way. Now, the team will need to steal a few wins the rest of the way as they will likely need to finish 10-6 to earn a wild-card berth. We shall see if Jon Gruden can get his team to win four of the next five games to make the playoffs.

[vertical-gallery id=58364]

[lawrence-newsletter]