Raiders Round-Up Week 8: A Horrifying Loss

-Mike Mueller, Contributor 

If you like being scared, but aren’t into gore, may I suggest a very safe alternative: Watching the Las Vegas Raiders’ “offense.” You will be horrified at their lack of execution, and I promise, you won’t even see anybody else get beat up, much less mutilated.

After last week’s shellacking by the Baltimore Ravens, a lot of NFL fans thought “oh here we go. Same Old Lions are about to stink up the season once again.” But if you live in Metro Detroit, you know this isn’t the S.O.L. and whoever the Lions had next on their schedule was going to pay for it. Unfortunately for me, a Metro Detroit resident, that team was the Las Vegas Raiders. 

Despite the Raiders getting Jimmy G back, there was zero confidence going into this match. The Raiders offense has been terrible all year, and their defense, while outperforming their talent level, isn’t dominant enough to carry a game. 

So, it came as absolutely no surprise when the Lions absolutely mauled the Raiders. It started from the opening drive, as the Lions went down the field thanks in large part to Jahmyr Gibbs. A huge play by Maxx Crosby allowed the Raiders to stop the Lions in the Red Zone, something they haven’t done much of this season, and held Detroit to a field goal. 

The Raiders, as expected, came out as lifeless as one of Jason Vorhees’ victims, and quickly punted the ball away. On the next drive, a huge fumble forced by unsung hero Robert Spillane gave the Raiders a golden opportunity to take the early lead. So naturally, Jimmy G threw an interception on the very first play, a horribly underthrown ball that was supposed to go to Davonte Adams. Much like the game against the Steelers, this first quarter blunder seemed like the nail in the coffin. When your offense is struggling, you can’t give away golden opportunities like this. 

Las Vegas continued to look inept on offense, but the defense showed up once again, continuing to hold the high powered Lions offense to field goals. When the score was 9-0, the Raiders put together their only successful drive of the game, a 10 play 75 yard drive that ended in a Josh Jacobs touchdown. With just under 3 minutes left, it seemed possible that the Raiders could go into halftime down only 2 points, which would be phenomenal given the way we played in that first half. 

Unfortunately we couldn’t keep the Lions out of the end zone forever, and Detroit took the next drive to the house, as Jared Goff connected with rookie tight end Sam LaPorta for a touchdown, and the game was 16-7 at the half.

Starting the 3rd quarter, it seemed like the Raiders had FINALLY made some good halftime adjustments. Not on offense, of course. We went 4-and-out on our opening drive. But then a miracle happened; veteran Marcus Peters came up with a huge interception that he took to the house! Ironically, it was a dropped pick-six by Peters in the aforementioned Steelers game that seemed like the early deathknell. Perhaps Peters had made up for it. 

The Raiders defense continued to bend but not break, and the Lions found themselves in the red zone once again. A touchdown seemed inevitable until DPOY candidate Maxx Crosby came up with a huge forced fumble and recovery, stopping the Lions at the goal line and giving the Raiders the opportunity to do something they’ve scarcely done this year, score an offensive touchdown in the 3rd quarter! Or…we could go 3-and-out again. Yeah, that sounds more like us. Davonte Adams dropped another crucial ball (similar to his 4th quarter TD drop against the Bears last week) on 3rd down and we had to punt. 

All the grinding that the Lions running game did in the first half started to pay off in the second half, as Jahmyr Gibbs finally reached the end zone on a beautiful 27 yard rush and the game was now 23-14. The Raiders offense would continue to be horrible, the defense would continue to get worked over in the run game, and the Lions would add one more field goal to win the game 26-14. 

Although the Raiders “only” lost by 12, the disparity between these two teams was much greater than that. The Lions outgained the Raiders by a 486-157 yard margin. That’s 3x as much. Jahmyr Gibbs went full Billy Loomis on our defense, with 189 all purpose yards. Gibbs himself generated more offense than our entire team. Elsewhere, Amon-Ra St. Brown had yet another 100 yard receiving game, and Sam LaPorta stepped up in a big way with 8 catches including that first half touchdown. 

Iowa tight ends have been true children of the corn in the NFL. Dallas Clark, George Kittle, and T.J. Hockinson have been terrorizing the league for years, and now Sam seems to be following in their creepy little footsteps. 

At this point, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “gee Mike, you’re talking an awful lot about the Lions for a guy who is supposed to be covering the Raiders.” That’s true, because when I talk about the Raiders offense, it makes me want to change my last name from Mueller to Myers and go on a rampage. I originally thought Jimmy Garoppolo was a lateral move from Derek Carr. I was wrong. So terribly, terribly wrong. He is a huge step down. Davonte is more concerned about individual greatness, the offensive line is not doing Jacobs any favors, and our role players are nowhere to be seen. 

So how do we fix the problem? That starts at the top. Josh McDaniels should never have been chosen as the Raiders head coach. The truth is, we already had our head coach. After Jon Gruden got fired in 2021, Special Teams Coordinator Rich Bisaccia was elevated to Interim Head Coach and did a brilliant job. The players loved him, fought hard for him, and he produced results. That team went to the playoffs and were one play away from beating the eventual AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals. It’s been all downhill from there. 

How do you add a star player like Davonte Adams and somehow your team is instantaneously worse? This is clearly a problem with management, not the employees. Several Raiders have already been outspoken in their disdain of the head coach. If Las Vegas learned anything from their time in Detroit, hopefully it's the ability to strike. The UAW and casino employee unions are striking to get what they deserve, maybe the Raiders fans and employees should do the same. Mark Davis, please listen to the people and the locker room, and get rid of Josh McDaniels.