The Oakland Raiders came into Week 12 winners of three straight and needing a road win against the New York Jets to set up a first-place showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs next week. Jon Gruden has had his team playing well in recent weeks, but that came crashing down against the Jets as they got demolished in every facet of the game, resulting in a 34-3 loss to drop to 6-5 on the year.
The Raiders actually started the game with the ball and put together a solid opening drive. It stalled in the red zone though, resulting in a field goal to give Oakland an early 3-0 lead. The Jets quickly responded with a field goal of their own to tie the game though after an offensive pass interference call wiped out their touchdown.
New York got rolling in its second drive of the day, going 96 yards on 12 plays to take a 10-3 lead. Maxx Crosby came up with a big sack of Sam Darnold in the red zone, but a questionable roughing the passer call wiped out the big play and the Jets scored a play later.
Oakland’s offense couldn’t get anything going in the first half after the opening drive field goal largely due to some key drops. They trailed 13-3 going into the halftime locker room, but it was in the third quarter that things really started to get out of hand.
The Jet received the second-half kickoff and didn’t waste any time finding paydirt. The big play was a 69-yard pitch and catch from Darnold to Braxton Berrios, and then Darnold found Ryan Griffin for a 1-yard touchdown to cap off a 4-play, 81-yard drive.
As if things couldn’t get worse for the Raiders, Akec Ingold was stopped on fourth-and-short on the ensuing drive and the Jets cashed in with another touchdown. Then, Derek Carr threw a pick-six and all of a sudden the game was out of hand midway through the third quarter at 34-3.
With the big game against the Chiefs just around the corner, Gruden decided to give up on this one early and benched most of his starters towards the end of the third quarter. If Oakland wants to make the playoffs, the game against the Chiefs is now essentially a must-win.
