Raiders Round-Up Week 5: Say Cheese!

For the second time in three weeks, the Las Vegas Raiders had a prime time game at home. Last time, the Raiders lost 23-18 after getting totally dominated by the Pittsburgh Steeler defense. On Monday night, they had a significantly easier task, taking on the youngest team in the league, the Green Bay Packers. 

 

Unlike prior Raiders games, this one started out slow, with four punts between the teams’ first five possessions. The only score came on a Green Bay field goal after the Packers drove the field mainly through the legs of AJ Dillon. But then, something beautiful happened. The Las Vegas Raiders put together a drive that should be the bleu-print for how this team plays offense. The Raiders engineered a 14 play drive that took 8:28 off the clock and absolutely wore down the opposing defense. 

 

The NFL loves flashy teams that score quick and make great highlight reels, but this Raiders team is not built that way. We are the antithesis of the Miami Dolphins or Kansas City Chiefs. We are a team whose offensive identity is built around short, high percentage completions, and winning the line of scrimmage. When we are able to do that (and not kill ourselves with pre-snap penalties), this is what it looks like, and manchego is it beautiful! 

 

The Raiders were instantly rewarded for their great drive by getting their second interception of the year, a gift of a throw from Jordan Love went directly to Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane and suddenly the Raiders could put themselves in a position to take a 14-3 lead. However, that would be too easy, and we’re still the Raiders after all. The Raiders went 3-and-out and settled for a chip shot field goal, keeping it a one score game at 10-3. 

 

Another Packers punt meant the Raiders had as gouda an opportunity to extend their lead before the half, but the Cheeseheads came up big on special teams, deflecting a field goal attempt and we headed into the half up by a touchdown. It’s important to note that Coach Josh McDaniels made a questionable coaching decision to not take a time out after the Packers got to fourth down, leaving the Raiders with 55 seconds and two time outs to work with, as opposed to 1:40 and one time out. The decision made even less sense when the Raiders’ first play of the drive was an ineffective jet sweep. 

 

Speaking of bad coaching decisions, if you’ve read my previous articles, you know I believe the root of our weakness as a team is 3 fold: A porous secondary, bonehead penalties and turnovers, and the inability of the coaches to make good halftime adjustments.

 

All three of these facets of this Cerberus reared their ugly heads at the beginning of the second half, as Jimmy G threw yet another terrible interception (he already has seven of them on this young season) leaving Green Bay with a short field to work with. Unlike the Raiders, the Packers seized the opportunity and continued to play power-run football, and AJ Dillon bulldozed his way into the endzone, tying the game up 10-10.

 

A Raiders 3-and-out gave Green Bay the ball with the opportunity to reclaim their lead. They wasted no time, by exposing our swiss-cheese calibur pass defense, and Jordan Love threw a bomb to Christian Watson for 77 yards. To his credit, Marcus Peters, who was picked on all game, saved a touchdown by ripping Watson down with a horse collar tackle. This time, the Raiders were able to stop the power of AJ Dillon and Green Bay had to settle for a field goal, giving the Packers a 13-10 lead. 

 

It was at this point that the Raiders did something truly spectacular (for us), they put together ANOTHER long possession, this one a 10 play drive that saw Josh Jacobs finally earn some of that cheddar he made this offseason, and tear his way into the endzone zone. The Raiders quickly reclaimed their lead, 17-13.

 

The Raiders would make another huge play as Marcus Peters was finally feta up. After missing two easy picks earlier in the year, and being beat up all game, Peters had a beautiful pass deflection that allowed Robert Spillane to get his second interception of the year! 

 

Again, we are the Raiders, so nothing can be too easy. Another missed field goal by Carlson later in the fourth quarter made the Silver & Black faithful worried that we would give this game away at the end once again, but our secondary was able to muenster up a THIRD interception of the game, this time by CB Amik Robertson, and that was the end! 

 

Ultimately, this is an experienced Green Babybel team, and the Raiders should have won all along, however it’s hard not to get excited when you see the Raiders play up to their potential. This game saw the defense get multiple turnovers and an offense that overcame second-half adversity. They didn't make an abondance of dumb mistakes, and perhaps most importantly, allowed a national audience to bask in the glory that is Maxx Crosby. 

 

I would have mentioned Crosby throughout this article every time he came up with a big play, but that would add about another 2,500 words to this already lengthy piece. Maxx is objectively a top 5 defensive end in the league and it seems like he gets no love from the national media. Everybody fawns over TJ Watt, Myles Garrett, Micah Parsons, Aidan Hutchinson, and Joey Bosa. Understandably so, they’re great, but Maxx is playing on a line without any other anchor. Chandler Jones has a ton of personal issues, first round pick Tyree Wilson seems to be a bust, the linebackers are not helping in the pass rush, and yet Maxx, who is double and sometimes triple teamed, is destroying the run game and constantly pressuring, if not creaming, the quarterback. 

 

This is exactly how the Raiders need to be winning games. It’s not going to be pretty, it’s not going to be high scoring (we’ve scored 18 or fewer points in every game this year), but the Raiders are entering a stretch where three out of their next four opponents are all 1-4. If the Raiders take care of those games, which they should, they can be sitting at 5-4 halfway through the year. 

 

Next week, they host the New England Patriots, who are coming off their two worst losses in the Bill Belichick era. 

 

Author’s note: Did you find all 10 types of cheese listed in this article?