Monday Morning Observations: Raiders Rebound, But Lose Heartbreaker Vs. Broncos

Jeff Spiegel
Jeff Spiegel
5 Min Read
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

As far as the Oakland Raiders are concerned, you can take all your Week 1 hot takes and shove ’em. After hearing all week about how bad they were, how scared their quarterback was, how out-of-touch their coach was, the Raiders responded with an impressive performance in their last-second loss to the Denver Broncos.

Yes, it was a loss — which means some questions remain unanswered — but it was a loss laced with positives and improvements and signs of potential. With that said, here are my Monday Morning Observations:

Derek Carr sets record

I can’t imagine anyone was more excited about playing on a short week than Carr, who must have been sick of hearing about his poor performance against the Los Angeles Rams. With that as motivation, Carr put together the most efficient performance at the quarterback position in NFL history: completing 29/32 passes for 288 yards and a touchdown. It was the first time in history that a quarterback has attempted more than 30 passes and completed at least 90 percent of them. (You can catch his highlights here)

Raiders battle to survive

Of the 60 minutes the Raiders played on Sunday afternoon, they trailed for just eight seconds — unfortunately, they were the wrong eight seconds. And yet, when you consider the circumstances, it’s hard to have asked for much more from this group.

This game was played just six days after Oakland hosted the late Monday night game, it required travel to high altitude, and it happened to feature the highest temperature in Broncos history. When the Broncos got the ball back under two minutes, you could tell the Raiders defense was running on empty — and in the end, they came up one play short.

That’s Amari

One catch in Week 1? How about 10 in Week 2? Cooper caught every ball thrown his way, finishing with 116 yards on the day — flashing more and more of what the Raiders will need from him in order to get this season back on track.

Defense flashes

It wasn’t a complete game from the defense, but with a new scheme and new players everywhere, the arrow is pointing upwards when it comes to this unit. On five drives in the first half, the Broncos managed to run just 17 plays thanks to excellent tackling and disciplined defense. Unfortunately, the second half couldn’t have been more different. On four second-half drives, the Broncos ran 45 plays and scored all 20 of their points — not allowing the defense to get a single stop.

Mistakes, mistakes, mistakes

What Raiders fans will remember most about this game were the missed opportunities: Keith Smith’s drop on fourth and one, Jared Cook’s false start on the drive that could have killed the clock, Bruce Irvin’s penalty on what would have been fourth down (turning a field goal into a touchdown) and the blocked extra point among them. If any one of those plays goes the other way, the Raiders probably emerge victorious. Instead, they’re 0-2 and headed back out on the road.

All in all, this was a game the Raiders deserved to win — which is probably what makes it hurt the most. With that said, after Week 1’s debacle, it’s nice to walk away from a game with some hope that the season isn’t all lost. Jon Gruden and Paul Guenther proved they have the chops to get this thing going — and now they know they’ve got the quarterback to get them there. Playing in Denver under these circumstances put the Raiders at a disadvantage before things even started, and yet they still barely lost.

While the Raiders sit at 0-2 heading into Miami to face the 2-0 Dolphins, this was a game filled with far more positives than negatives. The season isn’t lost yet, but time is running out on excuses and talk about a hopeful future.

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Jeff Spiegel was raised in California but currently resides in Portland, Oregon. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he worked in sports before entering journalism full time — first as a Sports Reporter and then as the Associate Editor of a small newspaper. Online, he has been writing about both the Raiders and Dodgers since 2012 — having written for DodgersNation.com and SBNation.com prior to joining both DodgerBlue.com and RaidersNewswire.com. He left full-time journalism in 2012 to become a pastor. Jeff can be found on Twitter at @JeffSpiegel. Favorite Raider This one is an easy one for me: Charles Woodson. When the Raiders drafted him, there was nothing to dislike about the guy — he was exciting and he was freaking good. Unfortunately, of course, he left after eight seasons — but when he returned in 2013 it was one of the better Raider moments of my lifetime. At that point, I didn't care how washed he was (and he wasn't!) — I just liked having him back in the silver and black. Obviously Tim Brown is another guy that was easy to love, but Woodson is the all-timer for me. As far as current, I'm still a believer in Derek Carr and think he's going to figure this all out. Favorite Raider Moment I think I'll go with the two weeks leading up to the 2001 Super Bowl. As a kid, I remember getting the newspaper every morning to read what they were talking about, clipping out the articles to keep for later. It was obviously far more exciting than the Super Bowl itself, but I'll never forget those moments of hope leading up to the Super Bowl. I referenced it above, but second to that was probably the return of Charles Woodson in 2013 — I just loved the guy, and never dreamed he'd actually come back.