I read last week that disappointment only exists where hope has resided. Well, the Oakland Raiders officially had their fans’ hopes up — and they’ve officially replaced that hope with disappointment.
Coming into the season, the playoffs didn’t seem like a realistic opportunity. The Antonio Brown fiasco, the young roster, the poor performance last year and a schedule from hell seemed like a recipe for disaster. The best-case scenario was going to be a marked improvement from the young guys.
And then they beat the Denver Broncos. And the Indianapolis Colts on the road. And the Chicago Bears in London. And all of a sudden the playoffs were in view! In fact, I even wrote that their next two games after London (Green Bay Packers and Houston Texans) were almost free money — wins would have been nice, but not necessary given that they’d already won two games on the trip.
But then, they were up by eight in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game against the Texans. They’re really going to do this, aren’t they?
They had held Deshaun Watson and the Texan offense to just 13 points in three quarters and had just scored on a 46-yard touchdown pass, Derek Carr‘s third of the day. Hope abounded.
But alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Watson threw two fourth-quarter touchdowns to Darren Fells and the Raiders offense sputtered thanks to drops and penalties, leaving them with a brutal 27-24 road loss. At 3-4, the Raiders head home (finally) to face the Detroit Lions next week.
But before we move on from Sunday, here are a few more key observations:
Penalties and the Raiders of old
My entire life was spent just accepting that the Raiders would lead the league in penalties. It came with the territory and was just part of life. Coming into the game, the Raiders were 23rd in the league, averaging eight penalties a game — a number that ballooned to 11 on Sunday. In a game as tight as this one, the Raiders needed to find (or create) one break for themselves in the fourth — and thanks to some back-breaking penalties (like Richie Incognito‘s hold on the team’s final drive), it just didn’t happen.
Derek Carr was good, but not great
Yes, Carr had his best statistical game of the season, throwing for three touchdowns — and yet Tyrell Williams had some tough drops late in the game — but it still wasn’t perfect. On multiple throws to Williams, Carr had him deep, but under-threw the ball — still giving his guy a chance, but making his life a bit more difficult.
Defensive schemes have to improve
Earlier this season, there was some heat on the Oakland defense when Lamarcus Joyner was schemed out of the game by the Kansas City Chiefs. Well, on Sunday the issue was a different one: how to deal with Deandre Hopkins.
The Texans did a great job of moving Hopkins all over the field, and in the second half, he found himself matched up on linebackers in zone coverage every single time his team needed a first down. When he’s the only skill guy you have to worry about, that simply cannot happen.
Lack of depth on defense showed up
Yes, I know the Raiders are missing guys like Johnathan Abram and Vontaze Burfict — but the guys they put out there didn’t make enough plays at the end of the game. The number of times they needed to run up and make a tackle short of the sticks — and failed to do so — felt too many to count. The number of times they let scrubs like Fells and Deandre Carter and Carlos Hyde make them look silly was unacceptable.
Zay Jones and Trevor Davis…hello?
The Raiders sent two draft picks out of town for these two guys, and they combined for just three catches and 42 yards on four targets. Zay Jones has only been in town for a couple of weeks, but the production from these two needs to improve, or the Raiders need to find another answer at wide receiver.
Darren Waller finally slowed
The Raiders looked for tight end Darren Waller early and often — to the tune of a team-high eight targets — but he only came down with two catches for 11 yards. Yes, he caught a touchdown, but when Oakland needed first downs late in the game he was nowhere to be found.
