Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 18 win over Broncos
For the fourth straight season, the Raiders complete the sweep of the Broncos. That’s right, the Las Vegas Raiders have never lost to the Broncos.
Raiders went out swinging, but went out just the same.
After a big win at Arrowhead over the defending champion Chiefs in Week 16, a trip to Indianapolis to face Gardner Minshew and the Colts seemed like a very winnable game for the Raiders.
It isn’t really that simple, though. The Raiders beat the Chiefs thanks to a couple of defensive TD’s. They can’t rely on that every week.
By half time, the Colts had scored off two big catches and the Raiders offense managed just a field goal. The Colts didn’t need to score a touchdown in the second half and still pulled out the win.[anyclip-media thumbnail=”undefined” playlistId=”undefined” content=”dW5kZWZpbmVk”][/anyclip-media]
Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 16 win over Chiefs
A month ago the Chiefs boat raced the Raiders in Las Vegas to go 8-3 on the season take a commanding lead in the AFC Playoff race. At that time, it seemed you could chalk up another win for the Chiefs when the Raiders came to Arrowhead on Christmas Day.
Since then things have taken a turn for both teams. The Chiefs have been very beatable and the Raiders defense has been extremely stingy and opportunistic.
These teams collided on that same trajectory and the result was a stunner with the Raiders defense almost singlehandedly taking down Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs 20-14.
Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 14 route of Chargers
What an insane game this was. Four days earlier, the Raiders were shut out 3-0 by the Vikings. Then they come out in this one and not only score a touchdown on their opening drive, not only score 21 points in the first quarter, not only go up 42-0 in the first half, not only scored 49 points before the Chargers scored for the first time, but scored a franchise record 63 points in a 63-21 trouncing of the Chargers.
That was one heck of a run-on sentence.
So, you might just see a heavy dose of Ballers this week. I wasn’t even sure there’d be a Buster, but in the end I found one. But just one.
Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 14 loss to Vikings
A barn burner it was not. This game made the wrong kind of history. It was the first game in Raiders history that was scoreless in the fourth quarter. In fact, the first score didn’t happen until 1:57 left in the game. That was a Vikings field goal and it proved to be the game winner.
Both teams had moved into scoring range earlier in the game, but the Vikings missed a field goal attempt and the Raiders fumbled it away inside the 20.
The result was a 0-0 tie for the first 58 minutes and a final of 3-0.
Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 11 loss to Dolphins
There were more than a few people who were surprised at how the Raiders hung around with the Dolphins the entire game in Miami. Many thought the Raiders would get their doors blown off and that isn’t so much disrespect for the Raiders as much as it is respect for the Dolphins.
But Antonio Pierce has the Raiders playing inspired football. Even if, at times, it isn’t great football — at least not on the offensive side of the ball — it’s inspired. And that’s all you can really hope for if you hope to get the most out of the talent you have available.
Hence the reason this game was never more than a one-score difference for either team and went down to the wire before the Dolphins won it 20-13.
In a game of defensive heroics, Maxx was still the heroic-est. But this time he got a little help from the other side of the line.
We pick things up in the third quarter. That’s when the Raiders stopped letting the Dolphins get to the end zone. Crosby stopped their second drive almost single-handedly. They moved to first down at the Vegas 36. Then Crosy got in the backfield to make the stop on run stuff for one yard. Next play he helped make a tackle on a two-yard catch. And on third down, got pressure to force a bad throw. The Dolphins attempted a 50-yard field goal and missed.
The next drive ended when Koonce got pressure up the middle on a stunt to force an incompletion, leading to another field goal attempt. This one connected from 41 yards out. Koonce would get pressure to help end the next drive as well with the Dolphins again settling for a field goal.
The fourth quarter saw three possessions by the Dolphins for a total of 19 yards of offense. The first had Koonce made a run stuff, then ended with a vicious tackle by Crosby to make the stop well shy of the sticks. The second was upended with Koonce forcing a holding penalty that the Dolphins couldn’t overcome. The final possession, they got their only first down on the fourth quarter, but it still ended three plays later with Crosby getting a pressure to force an incompletion. That defensive stand gave the Raiders offense one more shot with just under two minutes remaining.
After the Raiders went up 10-7 in the first quarter, the Dolphins led out the second quarter looking like they might respond with a touchdown to retake the lead. Hobbs saw to it that didn’t happen. Once they got to the 30-yard-line, Hobbs made two tackles on short catches. The Dolphins would still drive to inside the five-yard-line. They would go for it on fourth-and-one from the three-yard-line and it was Hobbs who came up to make the initial hit behind the line and Pola-Mao finished it off for the turnover on downs.
In the final seconds of the second quarter, the Dolphins were up 14-10 and driving. That was until Hobbs punched the ball out to force a fumble and give the Raiders the ball at the Miami 32-yard-line. The ensuing field goal made it a one-point game at the half.
First play of the third quarter, Pola-Mao picked off a deep Tua Tagovailoa pass. He later teamed up on a stop on third down.
Hobbs and Pola-Mao finished third and fourth on the team in tackles respectively. And they combined for two of the Raiders’ three takeaways in the game.
Cole was launching some punts into orbit in this game. His first punt went 50 yards with an illegal blindside block at the end of it to start the Dolphins’ drive at the 14-yard-line.
He added a 53-yard punt in the second quarter that was fair caught. And later in the quarter broke off a beauty that traveled 61 yards and bounced out of bounds at the 12-yard-line.
Then in the third quarter he booted a 51-yard punt the was fair caught at the 15. And, finally, he kicked another 53-yarder with an illegal block on the return that started the Dolphins possession at their own 10.
A couple weeks ago against the Giants, Cole had four punts of 63 yards or more, which set a record. But this game was better in some regards, because of those big punts, only one was stopped inside the 20-yard-line. And two of them went for touchbacks. In fact, in Sunday’s game in Miami, on six punts, Cole had zero touchbacks and the Dolphins started their drive inside the 20 four times. That usually means better hang time and better placement. Which is preferable to just simple punt distance.
It might not surprise you to learn that Spillane led the Raiders in tackles (13). He also had a tackle for loss and a pass breakup that was very nearly an interception. Because of course he did. He’s become quite the ball hawk this season.
His first tackle of the game went for a loss. Then on the Dolphins’ first drive of the second quarter, he had three run stops, including a stop on third and ten just short of the sticks. The Dolphins went for it on fourth-and-one from the three and couldn’t convert.
Spillane was a big factor in stopping the Dolphins on their final two drives, thus giving the Raiders offense two more shots at tying the game late. He was in on the tackle on third-and-15 to force the first punt. Then he was in on the run stop on their second to last play as well.
WR Davante Adams — Got open a lot in this game. It wasn’t his fault Aidan O’Connell only connected with him on one deep shot. But it was the Raiders’ one TD in the game.
LB Luke Masterson — Forced the fumble on the Dolphins’ first drive to start the Raiders second possession already in scoring range.
DC Patrick Graham — While Antonio Pierce gets credit for this team playing inspired football, Graham should get some love for his work as well.
Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 10 win over Jets
The way this one played out was pretty much exactly as everyone expected. In the lead up to the game, I basically kept thinking to myself ‘first to 16 wins’. That’s because ain’t nobody was gonna be scoring more than one touchdown and if either team did, that would be the deciding factor.
That team was the Raiders, who beat the Jets 16-12.
Even if you remove his late game clutch interception, Spillane might still have been the best player in this contest. And that’s saying a lot.
Spillane was on a mission. At least four times in this game, plays he made were the deciding factor in stopping a Jets’ drive.
Come the second quarter, the Jets had scored on their first three possessions to go up 9-3. Thanks to Spillane, they wouldn’t score again until the fourth quarter.
Their next three possessions ended with Spillane making the play. A run stuff for no gain on third and two, a sack on second and two, and forcing a hold on third and 21 then making the stop on third and 22.
Then with the Jets within four at 16-12 and driving late in the fourth quarter, he stepped in front of the Zach Wilson pass for his third interception of the season. This one with a cast on his right hand. Unbelievable.
It was a back-and-forth game with the Raiders failing to take the lead once in the first three quarters. That ended on the first play of the fourth quarter when Aidan O’Connell escaped pressure and put a ball up high where only Mayer could get it and Mayer leapt in the air, plucking it from over the top of the defender to the go-ahead score.
It was Mayer’s first touchdown as a pro and it was a beauty. And in a game like this, it proved to be enough to get the W.
This game started poorly for the Raiders, with a 41-yard catch and run that put them in scoring range. It would go no further thanks to Crosby. He flew in for what should be credited as a sack. And when I say that, I think a rule change is in order, which states that if you have the player wrapped up and he is flagged for intentional grounding, that should be a sack. For the purposes of the game, it was the same. The Jets lost ten yards and a down and couldn’t make it back up, settling for a field goal.
It was big plays on each drive that put the Jets in scoring range. Their third one came off of an interception and moved them into first and goal at the three. A touchdown here may have been devastating in a game this close. So, Crosby wrecked it. He forced a holding penalty that backed them up to the 13. Then was in on the run stop on second and goal and the Jets would settle for a third field goal.
Jenkins had a run stuff on the Jets’ first drive. Tillery upended the second drive when he forced a holding penalty. Butler ended the third drive on third and goal when he batted the ball down at the line.
The next possession, Jenkins had another run stuff for no gain. Then the drive after that, he got one of his big mitts on a pass to bat it at the line. Come the third quarter, Butler had a tackle for loss on a three-and-out.
The first drive of the fourth quarter ended with Tillery getting all the way out to the left boundary to help Divine Deablo lead Zach Wilson out of bounds to end the drive. And on the Spillane interception, it was Tillery who got around his man to get pressure in Wilson’s face and force the throw.
His two fumbles in the game really had me thinking whether he deserved to be on this list. In the end I decided that because his hard running was such a key factor in the Raiders scoring 16 points in the first place, he deserved more credit than blame.
His first fumble came on the tail end of a 40-yard burst and it bounced out of bounds. The run put the Raiders at the 13-yard-line. The next play he ran for five yards to the eight. Two plays later, they scored the touchdown.
In the early going, yards were tough to come by for Jacobs against a stout Jets defensive front. Even so, his running was a major factor in several scoring drives. Their second scoring drive came near the end of the second quarter and featured runs of six yards and eight yards — both of which the Raiders made the first down on the next play.
The third scoring drive saw Jacobs convert a third and two and a fourth and one along with the longest play of the drive that went for 12 yards on a catch in the left flat. That drive tied the game at 9-9.
Just prior to his lost fumble late in the fourth, Jacobs showed he is still a strong runner late in games, when broke several tackles and carried defenders the final five yards of a seven-yard first down run. He also had a nine-yard run and converted on third and one on that drive.
Jacobs finished with 116 yards rushing — his first time going over 100 yards this season — and added two catches for 11 yards.
The Jets have the man once known at ‘Greg the Leg’ and ‘Legatron’. And the Raiders have the best in the game today in Carlson. Both kickers were doing work in this one, with Carlson splitting them from 40, 41, and 54 yards.
WR DeAndre Carter — Had a 32-yard kick return to the Jets 45 that helped lead to the game-tying field goal. Later had a 15-yard run on fourth and one.
Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 9 win vs Giants
You won’t see many more lopsided victories than the Raiders had over the Giants Sunday. It was made all the more amazing when compared to how they looked over the first eight games of this season.
They stopped the Giants with a three-and-out to start things off and then drove for a touchdown. The next three Giants drives were a turnover on downs, consecutive sacks to put them in third and 27 and a punt, and a three and out.
Then midway through the second quarter, the Raiders drove for another touchdown, intercepted the ball, scored a third touchdown, intercepted the ball again, added a field goal at the end of the first half, and another one to begin the third to go up 27-0.
It was enough to make your head spin. At least if you were the Giants.
He brought the Raiders ready to play and itching to get him a big win in his debut of the post-Josh McDaniels era. The players came out pumped and the Giants got caught under the wheels of that bus.
The offense scored over 20 points for the first time this season, Josh Jacobs had a season-high rushing yards, and the defense had eight sacks, two turnovers off interceptions, and four others on downs. Then they sparked up cigars afterward to celebrate being out from under Josh McDaniels’s thumb and finally having fun again.
Crosby came into the game outside the top ten in sacks. And left tied for second with TJ Watt. And even with three sacks in the game, he was still more valuable than his sack total.
The first Giants possession saw them line up in fourth and one to go for it. Then Maxx got the right guard to jump and they had to punt instead. The next drive saw the Giants again go for it on fourth and one. This time Crosby led the way in making the stop at the line for no gain.
The third drive ended with Crosby chasing down Daniel Jones for the sack. Jones attempted to get away from Crosby and tore his ACL.
Already up 27-0 in the third quarter, Crosby saw to it they didn’t close that gap. He got pressure on first down and got his second sack on third down to force another three-and-out. That series pretty much slammed the door on the Giants’ chances of coming back. But just for good measure, he would add one more sack early in the fourth quarter.
Even with the Raiders defense finally stepping up to match his energy, he still led the way for this team. And had cigars ready for the whole team after the game.
With the Raiders up 14-0 in the second quarter, the Giants knew they needed to make a big play. QB Tommy DeVito launched one for the end zone and Robertson flew over, got up in the air and picked it off, much like he did to win the game against the Packers a few weeks ago. He would get up and return this one to th 40-yard-line and the Raiders would capitalize on the turnover with their third touchdown of the day.
Early in the fourth quarter, he made a hard hit on a catch to knock the ball out on fourth down. And a bit later he added a forced fumble to his stat line just for good measure. Have yourself a game, Amik.
Set the tone early and kept it going. He had 31 yards on on four runs on the opening touchdown drive, 33 yards and the touchdown run from two yards out on the second scoring drive, and scored again from two yards out on the next drive.
He already had a season-high 85 yards rushing by half time and the Raiders led 24-0. He surpassed 100 yards for a moment before a loss on a run put him back at 98 yards.
The 34-year-old was playing like he was ten years younger, showing rare pass rush and sideline-to-sideline run stopping abilities for a 327-pounder. He got pressure on the second play of the game to force an incompletion and the Giants started the game with a three-and-out.
The second Giants drive saw them line up in third and three and Nichols made the run stop short of the sticks. Then on fourth and one, he teamed up with Crosby and Jenkins to stop the tush push for no gain.
The first possession of the second quarter saw Jenkins race down the line to make a tackle for loss in the left flat, leading to another three-and-out.
Pressure was coming from all over the Raiders line, but Nichols was doing some nice complementary football with Crosby in this one. On consecutive plays in the fourth quarter Nichols had a pressure that led to a Crosby sack and then Crosby had pressure that led to a Nichols sack. That’s how it’s supposed to be done.
The rookie scored on the opening drive while delivering a strike on a slant to Jakobi Meyers that went for 25 yards.
The next scoring drive, he reminded us that Hunter Renfrow is on this team with consecutive connections to the shifty slot receiver for 19 yards and 13 yards to put the Raiders in first and goal. They scored the TD on the next play.
Following the Amik Robertson interception, O’Connell threw deep on the first play for a gorgeous 50-yard hookup with speedster Tre Turner to put the Raiders in first and goal at the ten. They scored three plays later.
He opened the second half by completing passes on four third downs, converting the first three and putting them in field goal range with the fourth one to make it a 27-0 game.
The rookie didn’t have massive numbers, but he delivered some strikes, ran the offense perfectly, and didn’t turn the ball over. Not much more you can ask of him than that.
The entire Oline played every snap, didn’t give up a single sack, and opened holes for Josh Jacobs to hit 100 yards and two touchdowns.
On the second TD drive, Eluemunor and Van Roten made key blocks on a 15-yard Jacobs run and Eluemunor laid a key block on the touchdown run. Miller, Parham, and Van Roten got out left to make key blocks on a 15-yard catch in the left flat by DeAndre Carter to get things going in the third quarter.
WR Jakobi Meyers — Scored the Raiders first TD on a sweep and made some nice blocks in the game as well.
RB Ameer Abdullah — Did some great dirty work on offense and special teams.
WR Tre Tucker — Made an incredible diving 50-yard grab that set up the Raiders’ second touchdown of the game.
This was about as flawless a performance as you’ll see on both sides of the ball. The Raiders were up 24-0 by half time and were up 27-0 midway through the third before the Giants got on the board for the first time. Hard to find blame for anything when one team scores that much and gives up nothing.
Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 8 loss vs Lions
Every week seems to be worse than the last for these Raiders. Which is saying a lot considering how terrible they looked last week in Chicago.
This week they were in Detroit against a much better team. And they were thoroughly outclassed and outcoached en route to a Lions 26-14 win.
Despite three takeaways, the offense Raiders never led.
They were down 9-0 early on. The Raiders had an improbable touchdown drive in the game. Improbable considering they did absolutely nothing on offense the rest of the game. The Raiders twice pulled to within two points, but both Raiders scores were immediately answered with a touchdown drive by the Lions.
Crosby’s place atop the Ballers is becoming like the RSTLNE on Wheel of Fortune. It’s the given.
Crosby flew in to make a tackle for no gain on a run that put the Lions in third and long on their first drive and they settled for a field goal. Later in the first quarter, he forced Jared Goff to step up in the pocket where he was hit and threw incomplete. They couldn’t pick up the third and long and punted. One of just two Lions punts in the game.
He wasn’t fooled on an end around in the second quarter lay a big hit on Jameson Williams that knocked his helmet off for a six-yard loss. The Lions would settle for another field goal to make it a 9-0 lead. He had another run stuff for no gain to start the next drive.
The first drive of the third quarter for the Lions, Crosby had a run stuff at the line and later ripped the ball out inside the four-yard-line to keep the Lions from putting the game away. They would ultimately put the game away, but Crosby’s efforts kept the Raiders in it until the fourth quarter.
To lead out the second quarter, the Lions were in scoring position again. They would line up in second and goal from the 16 and Butler made a run stop for a two-yard loss to put them in third and goal from the 18. They couldn’t pick it up and settled for another field goal.
The next drive, on third and nine from the 15, Butler batted down a pass at the line, and the Lions settled for a third field goal. He added a QB hit for an incompletion in the third quarter.
He finally got one. After going for the pick or the strip at the expense of making the tackle in the first seven games, Peters finally got an interception. And as he has done six times previously in his career, Peters took that pick and returned it for a touchdown. He went 75 yards for that score too, scoring as many points all by himself as the entire offense did.
Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 7 loss to Bears
One of the tougher tasks I have occasionally had in the 16 years I’ve been doing this series is finding anything positive in a seemingly complete collapse. This was one of those times.
The hapless Bears jumped to a 14-0 lead in this game and never looked back. The Raiders couldn’t stop the Chicago offense led by undrafted rookie QB Tyson Bagent. Mostly because they couldn’t stop the ground game and found themselves on their heels all game long.
It was so bad that even the final score didn’t accurately reflect the disparity. The final six points was a garbage time score after they were down 30-6. And honestly we all knew once the Raiders went down 21-3 in the third quarter, that was the clincher. After all, the Raiders offense hadn’t broken the 20-point barrier all season, and they were clearly not going to do it on this day.
But, as we typically do, let’s start with the glimmer of good before we go to the myriad of bad.
The best all-around edge rusher in the NFL is often the exception for the Raiders. Nearly every week he is not just a Baller, but the Top Baller. Even if that isn’t all that difficult to do on this team.
The defense didn’t hold up well most of the game, but every time they did, Crosby was the reason why.
The day began on a high note. The Bears won the toss and made the rare decision to start on offense. Then the Raiders forced a three-and-out, which immediately put them at an advantage. That advantage was created because on second down, Crosby got pressure to set up Bilal Nichols to make a tackle for loss and the Bears couldn’t dig out of it.
Down 7-0 to begin the second quarter, the Bears began driving again, picking up a couple first downs. Then Crosby burst into the backfield, forcing a holding penalty on his man and the Bears once again could not overcome it and punted.
Down 14-3 late in the second quarter, the Bears were threatening again. They moved into Vegas territory at the 47 and would get no further. Crosby flew in for the sack to put them back in their own territory with seconds left and that ended that.
That was as close as the Raiders would get. Still within two scores. Unfortunately Crosby can’t do it all by himself and the Bears were able to extend their lead, while the offense not only couldn’t close the gap, but actually made it worse with a late pick-six to turn this one into a laugher.
The Raiders had three scoring drives in the game. The first one featured a heavy dose of Meyers. He caught four consecutive passes for a combined 34 yards to put the Raiders in scoring range.
The second scoring drive featured a catch my Meyers to convert on third-and-three and a four-yard catch on second-and-goal from the ten.
He would later catch the Raiders only touchdown in the game. Even if it was a meaningless one in garbage time.
