In a game, most thought would be competitive with the Raiders having the best chance to come out on top, didn’t turn out anything like that. Not only did the Raiders lose, they barely put up a fight.

It was cold outside, and so were the Raiders. They scored on a field goal on the opening drive and then didn’t score again, going down 34-3 in New York.

It wasn’t easy to find a diamond in this rough outing, but I managed to uncover one.

Top Baller: DE Maxx Crosby

His 4-sack game last week against the Bengals begged the question of what he could do for an encore. While a repeat performance would be far too much to expect, he was still the best player on the field for the Raiders on that day. Though you might argue that it wasn’t hard to do with the way, the rest of the team was playing.

Early in the second quarter, he had what should’ve been a sack on Sam Darnold, but it was wiped out by one of the most bogus roughing the passer penalties you’ll ever see. It wasn’t even called on Crosby, it was on Maurice Hurst, who was pushed over the top of Darnold and didn’t even land on him directly. So, instead of third and 16 from the 20 like it should have been, it was first and goal at the 4-yard-line. Darnold ran it in on the next play for the touchdown.

On the following drive, Crosby would again take down Darnold for the sack. This time there was no phantom roughing or anything to wipe it out. That sack gave Crosby the team lead with 7.5 sacks on the season, and more importantly, it stopped a Jets drive to force them to settle for a field goal.

The Jets’ next drive started at the Oakland 25-yard-line after a bad punt and a long return with a roughing penalty tacked on. Crosby made a run stop on first down and a few plays later, the Jets missed a field goal to keep the score at a seemingly manageable 13-3 at the half.

A huge 69-yard completion on the first possession of the third quarter would make the score different less manageable, and the Jets would run away with it after that.

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