Fresh off a win over the New York Giants in Week 8, the Detroit Lions made their final trip to Oakland to face the Raiders in the Black Hole.
The Raiders entered the game at 3-4, having lost two in a row, falling to the Packers and Texans. On a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon, the Raiders were slightly favored (-2.5) to beat the Lions.
Pregame notes
Tracy Walker, Graham Glasgow and Mike Daniels were all out for Detroit among the starters. Darius Slay returned after missing one week, but RB Tra Carson was lost to IR after the Giants game. The Raiders were missing center Rodney Hudson and return man Dwayne Harris as regulars.
Shawn Hochuli is the referee. One of the first things the FOX broadcast crew notes is that Hochuli’s crew calls the most holding penalties of any officiating group and both coaches noted that in their pre-production meetings with the TV crew.
First quarter
The Lions came out throwing. The first four plays were all quick passes, with Matthew Stafford completing the first three to three different receivers. Oakland’s defense was coming off games where the short, quick passing games using RBs and crossing routes had destroyed them in their losses. Using Kenny Golladay as a big slot on a shallow cross was an excellent wrinkle. Nice to see Lions OC Darrell Bevell attacking that soft underbelly right away.
An impressive opening drive ends abruptly when J.D. McKissic mishandles a simple handoff from Stafford and boots it into the line. The Raiders recover. As with the prior run play, a nice 10-yarder from Ty Johnson, the Lions OL created a big hole. Interestingly, the game book credits the fumble to Stafford but it’s clearly on McKissic.
Oakland answers with an impressive, ground-oriented drive. Rookie RB Josh Jacobs quickly proves he can read his blocks and get downhill quickly. The Lions LBs, notably Jahlani Tavai, are consistently a step late or stuck in the wrong hole. Rookie safety Will Harris allows several extra yards on two runs by running right past a tackling opportunity. Jacobs scoots in easily from the 2 as Raiders guard Richie Incognito takes out three Lions pursuers with one block. Raiders go up 7-0. Terrible drive from the defensive rookies, Tavai and Harris.
It’s the earliest action Corey Moore has seen at safety all season, playing as the No. 3 with Harris and Tavon Wilson. Interesting that the Lions stick with the 3-safety look and roll with Moore instead of LB Christian Jones on most plays. The Raiders deploy just one TE, Darren Waller, and he’s almost never aligned in-line, so it does make sense from a tactical standpoint.
Jamal Agnew shows zero intention of returning either of the first two kickoffs, something he was clearly told before taking the field. The Lions blocking was not very intense either. Definitely by design.
Stafford to T.J. Hockenson on a naked bootleg play-fake is absolutely gorgeous. Four defenders bite on the fake to Ty Johnson, who is finding the hole and attacking well as a runner early on. The drive continues with a perfect throw down the field to Marvin Jones. He’s well-covered but hauls in the contested catch because the CB never locates the ball. Great throw, perfect catch. Stafford rewards Jones with the TD pill on 4th down, one play after McKissic drops what should have been a score on a quick out.
Worth noting that Jones got up slowly from the long pass and was again deliberately slow and kept teammates from touching him during the TD celebration. Stafford sensed it right away when he congratulated him on the great catch. Matt Prater’s extra point makes it 7-7.
Damon Harrison makes a couple of very nice run stuffs on Jacobs on the ensuing drives. He’s basically the only Lions defender playing well here.
Second quarter
We have our first bad call on the first play of the quarter. Davis gets flagged for pass interference. It’s a terrible call versus Davis on a terrible throw from Carr.
Da’Shawn Hand jumps offsides on 3rd-and-6, making it a short-yardage situation. Jacobs pulls off a simple A-gap dive play for the conversion to keep the drive moving. The Lions are not good enough to make these kinds of mistakes. A botched snap bails out the defense and forces Oakland to kick a field goal and it’s 10-7. This early-going is as bad as Tavai can possibly play.
Tyrell Crosby checks in as an extra tackle and promptly gets called (correctly) for holding on his very first snap. Taylor Decker gets flagged (correctly) for holding on the next play, which is actually beneficial because Hockenson was guilty of a crackback block where he dove at the back of a defender’s legs but it wasn’t called.
This happens next, on 1st-and-20:
Matthew Stafford —> 59 yards to Kenny Golladay. TD#DETvsOAK pic.twitter.com/iDdDYhKeQv
— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) November 3, 2019
Now that’s some truly dreadful defense by the Raiders, but the route concept, throw and run after the catch are all money in the bank. 14-10 Lions back up top.
The next drive for Oakland is Trey Flowers’ turn to be the one Lions defender playing well. Davis is playing in a spy role on Washington and he still gets lost two plays in a row. He runs into Christian Jones on a simple RB circle route that goes for big yardage by Washington.
Fortunately, Flowers comes up with two great stops in a row. He annihilates Incognito for a TFL while playing 3T on the right side. On the next rep he’s playing Wide-9 off the left edge and bulls the backup right tackle into Carr, forcing a hasty throwaway. The Raiders go for it but fail when Carr badly misses tiny slot receiver Hunter Renfrow on a quick out. Justin Coleman was beaten but Carr misses the throw by several feet. Lions ball.
A great cutback run by Paul Perkins gets the Lions rolling. Great blocks by Frank Ragnow and Rick Wagner set it up. The refs give one back to Detroit, calling Maxx Crosby for a trip on Perkins’ next run. It’s a legit call but one that gets flagged maybe one time out of 100.
Alas, the drive fizzles badly. On the next play, Stafford gets exactly what he wants with Golladay isolated on CB Daryl Worley, who has been terrible all game. It’s a jump ball by design but Stafford throws it too far inside. Golladay mistimes the jump just a bit and Worley comes down with the INT in the end zone. Not a good throw by Stafford, not a good play by Golladay — who had absolutely no separation — either.
The Raiders are doing a great job isolating Waller on Harris, who shows no anticipation on routes or ball awareness in coverage.
Tavai finally does something positive! A throw hits him in the back in coverage. He never made contact with WR Zay Jones in the zone coverage and the Raiders burn a timeout challenging the no-call. On that coverage note, the Lions have played more zone than man in this one, especially when Waller lines up split out.
The Raiders score on a TD plunge by Jacobs. Flowers did a fantastic job blowing up the lead block and opening the edge, but Wilson was late to fill and Davis got picked off by a block. Raiders go back on top 17-14.
Stafford gets sacked on the final play of the half on a miscommunication between Decker and Joe Dahl on a simple line twist. Based on the teammate reactions, it was Dahl’s error.
