The Oakland Raiders lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 26-10 in what could have been a big time statement game. The offense was horrendous, Jack Del Rio and company were completely outcoached, and the defense continuing to play 4-12 football were the biggest of the Oakland Raiders week six takeaways.
Oakland Raiders Week Six Takeaways
Derek Carr’s Bad Day
Derek Carr had his worst game of the season so far this year. He finished 22 of 34 with 228 yards passing and a single touchdown and interception. Those numbers are ugly enough. But when you add the fact he fumbled away the ball down 16 at the Kansas City 12 yard line on a critical drive and should have had another pick, it gets worse. Carr started 15 of 20 for 170 and a touchdown but could not get anything going in the second half. His footwork was sloppy throughout which caused him to miss several throws. He seemingly refused to look off any defenders and was not able to make anything happen when pressured. The offense was terrible as a whole, but Derek Carr deserves his fair share of the blame.
Offensive Play on the Offensive Line
For as highly touted as the Raiders offensive line was prior to ever playing a snap, they’ve yet to live up to the hype. While the Raiders have been very good at keeping Carr clean, they absolutely cannot seem to win at the point of attack. In the last three games the Raiders have 216 rushing yards combined. If you can’t run the ball, you can’t control the clock and keep a horrible defense off the field. This lets opposing defenses focus on simply going after Carr and trying to take away Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree. The Raiders offensive line today gave up two sacks and again let Carr get pressured into making poor plays for the second straight week.
The right tackle position was unsettled prior to week one and by week six the Raiders are already onto their fifth starter at the position. Austin Howard did mostly okay, but was partly responsible for Carr’s lone pick. Howard was beat badly off the snap and could not recover which didn’t allow Carr to step into his throw, forcing Carr to make an odd kind of jump pass which was well short of Crabtree and intercepted by Marcus Peters. That interception then lead directly to a touchdown.
Inability to Execute
Outside of an opening touchdown drive, Bill Musgrave‘s offense was terrible. Ten points in four quarters. Let that sink in. No matter how much blame the defense deserves, ten points is nowhere near good enough to win a game in the NFL. It will not get it done. Seth Roberts continues to drop passes on critical third down plays and most of his production comes from bubble screens and blown coverage. He’ll make one or two nice catch and runs every few weeks, but has displayed most prominently inadequate hands and the inability to make plays on his own.
On paper, Cooper’s stat line looks pretty good; ten catches for 129 yards. But, when you factor in the fact that he had nine catches for 117 yards in the first half, it makes one scratch their head. Cooper disappeared for pretty much the entire second half. If the Raiders are going to move the ball effectively on offense, Cooper is going to need to make plays for 60 minutes.
The third quarter alone could be used as a “how-not-to-win-football-games” instruction manual on its own. The Raiders ran a total of 11 plays with only one first down, three punts, and a total of 32 yards and zero points. The Chiefs best corner, Marcus Peters, was out for much of the third, yet oddly enough Carr never challenged the Chief’s defensive backs, and the Raiders were not able to move the ball.
Defense
Another week, another terrible showing for the Raiders’ defense. Going into this game, the Raiders had been giving up over 400 yards a game, and this time allowed 406. To make matters worse 183 of those yards came on the ground. No matter what the Raiders do, they have not found away to slow anyone down, let alone stop them. The safety play has been bad. Reggie Nelson, despite being a team captain, has been abused every week. Khalil Mack and the rest of the defensive line have made minimal impact, and the inside linebackers cannot shed blocks or cover anyone. The Raiders must find a solution. Otherwise, this team is going to lose a lot more games.
Coaching
Jack Del Rio is nowhere near the coach Andy Reid is. Reid’s squad made great adjustments throughout the game, had a great game plan, and the players were focused and prepared for the Raiders. Del Rio’s team did and had none of that. Every week, Del Rio and Ken Norton‘s defense looks confused and ill-prepared. The players play slow and never really seem to look like they’ve figured out the opposing team. The defense constantly looks like it’s trying to figure out what’s going on until the ball carrier is right in front of them.
Del Rio and company also has to figure out a way to create more pressure on the quarterback. Mack is getting chipped, double teamed, held, and generally completely game planned out of the game, so its up to the staff to figure out how to either free up Mack, or get other players to the quarterback.
Also, through six weeks the Raiders are the most penalized team in the NFL and it’s costing them drives. Del Rio has said all year these issues would sort themselves out, but so far they haven’t. And they don’t look to sort themselves out anytime soon. Del Rio will need to figure this penalty issue out soon; otherwise it could end up costing him more than just a few points.
Outlook
The Raiders are 4-2, are tied for first place in the AFC West and actually hold a tiebreaker over the Denver Broncos. They’re also 1-2 at home with a -19 point differential and a -21 point differential overall. They’ve yet to beat a winning team or really even put together a complete game of football on both sides of the ball. So far what the Raiders have shown to be is a team with a good, yet sometimes inconsistent offense, that’s heavily penalized, and has one of the worst defenses in the league. The Raiders do have a great quarterback in Derek Carr, but how far can he carry a team that hasn’t shown to be ready to play ball with the big kids yet.
