Sep 21, 2014; Foxborough, MA, USA; Oakland Raiders running back Darren McFadden (20) celebrates after a touchdown that was nullified by a holding penalty in the fourth quarter against the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots defeated the Raiders 16-9.Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Oakland turned some heads in Week 3’s game against New England. Despite terrible odds, a trip to the East Coast, and the always formidable Belichick-Brady combination, Oakland nearly took their first win from the reigning AFC East Divisional Champions. While clearly not perfect, there were several areas in which the Raiders showed improvement. Heading into the London game against Miami, it’s exciting to see progress from the team which held so many expectations coming into the season.
Offensively, Oakland managed to be more proficient in the passing game than in recent weeks, with rookie QB Derek Carr getting his first positive Pro Football Focus passing grade in the regular season (1.3 on total “aimed” passes). Dropped passes continue to be an issue (especially the final interception), but overall Carr was able to be successful throwing to more areas of the field. Outside of a few solid plays the run game still suffered poor blocking and short yardage. Oakland only managed to gain 67 total yards on 22 running plays for 2.77 yards per carry. Pro Bowl fullback Marcel Reece only got 4 touches all game, though he was targeted six times in the passing game, continuing the trend of criminally underutilizing one of Oakland’s best offensive assets.
On the defensive side, Oakland was actually fairly impressive. Defensive ends Justin Tuck and Antonio Smith had far better games than last week, helping to keep the New England run game centered between the tackles where more help can arrive. Middle linebacker was still a weakness, but the performances had moment of flash, with even Miles Burris laying some solid hits on running backs a couple times during the game. In the secondary, Oakland mostly played a soft zone with plenty of cushion on the receivers. While it was clearly effective to some degree in avoiding the big deep play it ultimately hurt them at several key points of the game. Especially in the second half, Brady was far too often able to easily throw to his receivers for first downs while the deep cover defender was slow to close the gap and challenge the catch.
Also… KHALIL MACK. Monster game from the lauded rookie. He totaled 6 solo tackles, 3 assists, and 2 QB hits (per PFF) despite being held so many times it was difficult to keep count (got lost somewhere after 9).
There’s definitely a lot of positive to get into this week, so without further ado let’s get to the game tape.