When the Raiders took the field at home on Saturday afternoon, the long-term health of the franchise hinged on two things: The game’s end result and the play of their interim quarterback, Jarrett Stidham.
While wins are nice — especially those over rivals like the Kansas City Chiefs — the Week 18 variety for a team already eliminated from the postseason and with glaring holes all over their roster is actually unhelpful. Short-term? Enjoyable. Long-term? Detrimental. (With wins from both the Panthers and the Falcons on Sunday, the Raiders’ loss secured them the No. 7 pick)
But even more important than the final score was the play of Stidham — the backup quarterback who balled out in his first career start against the league’s best defense in Week 17. Could he replicate such a performance? Could he actually be the answer at quarterback for a team with a desire to be competitive ASAP?
On these questions, Saturday’s answers were far more mixed. Stidham finished 22/36 for 219 yards with one touchdown, one interception and two fumbles (one lost) — plus 50 yards rushing. The interception was a bad one, and the fumbles were the sort that come from a quarterback who lacks meaningful experience — but the fact that he was the team’s leading rusher is what makes him so intriguing.
Bottom line: he was fine. If Derek Carr was giving the Raiders B/B+ level play, Stidham was on the low end of B- territory — better than some starters in the league but not nearly good enough to be competitive against a team like the Chiefs.
Coming into the game, the Chiefs defense was 12th in yards allowed per game and 20th in points allowed per game. In this one, they allowed just 279 total yards and 13 points (seven of which came halfway through the fourth quarter when the game was already over) — even though the Raiders’ first-team offense played the entire game.
In many ways, it was a reminder of where this Raiders team stands. They’re not in the same stratosphere as the Chiefs right now, which hurts to write but is true.
Offensive Headline: New Quarterback, Same Problems
If you thought the offensive problems were Derek Carr’s fault, I have bad news for you… With everything else the same, the Raiders offense continued to look out of sorts and ineffective.
In the first half, the Raiders held the ball for 17 minutes — and trailed 24-3. The biggest moment came with the Raiders trailing 14-3 halfway through the second quarter and holding the ball at the seven-yard line. After gaining just five yards on first and second down runs from Josh Jacobs, Stidham’s third and fourth down passes both fell incomplete.
Five minutes later, the Chiefs had marched 98 yards to extend the lead to 18 points.
Defensive Headline: Who?
A quick look at the box score would be jarring for a casual fan who may have tuned into this one. If you were looking for familiar names, you’d be mostly disappointed, aside from Maxx Crosby’s name.
Undrafted rookie Luke Masterson led the team in tackles (9) for the third time in the last four games, but Crosby was the only Week 1 starter to finish in the top five in tackles.
As much as I’d like to pile on defensive coordinator Patrick Graham for a group that’ll finish in the bottom seven in every major category — and I do think he deserves a decent amount of blame — the group he was handed was underwhelming at best. Could he have put them in better positions to succeed? Absolutely. But was this group going to be a high-level unit under any defensive coordinator? Unlikely.
Aside from Crosby, Nate Hobbs is probably the only other guy on the roster who is a building block moving forward. Which…yikes.
Player of the Game: Josh Jacobs
I truly hope this wasn’t the last we see of Jacobs in the silver and black, but if it is, nobody can argue he didn’t leave it all out there. Saturday wasn’t his best performance (by a long shot), but he did wrap up the league rushing title — just days after leaving the team to be with his dad, who underwent emergency heart surgery this week.
Here’s to hoping he gets the franchise tag or a long-term extension.
Odds and Ends
- I mentioned it above briefly, but there’s something to the mobility that Stidham brings to the table — especially behind such an awful offensive line. For as much as I loved Carr, it was clear that he did everything he could to avoid the big hit, sometimes giving up on plays a tad prematurely. Seeing a guy like Stidham threaten defenses with his legs — even a little bit — was exciting at the very least.
- While both guys missed a bunch of time, it was nice to see Hunter Renfrow (7 catches, 63 yards and a touchdown) and Darren Waller (2 catches, 35 yards) play bigger roles over the last two weeks. Both guys would be huge assets moving forward to whoever plays quarterback — if, that is, they’re both back.
- Many thought this might be a chance to see what the Raiders had in rookie running back Zamir White given that the team wasn’t playing for anything. And yet…he got just one touch all day. Is that a sign they intend to bring Jacobs back? Or that they already know what they do (or don’t) have?
- I’ve crushed Josh McDaniels all season for his lack of aggression this season, so it was hilarious to me that when the Raiders got the ball back with 47 seconds left in the first half, he was dialing up deep shots. Unfortunately, Stidham fumbled the ball on the fourth play of the drive, setting up a last-second field goal for the Chiefs.
