Three and Out: Oakland Raiders vs. Kansas City Chiefs
1. Amari Cooper
The one individual bright spot on Sunday was Amari Cooper, who finished the game with 10 catches for 129 yards.
It was the third game this year where Amari had at least 129 yards receiving, with 137 and 138 yards being the other two games. It was the first time in his young career that he recorded 10 receptions in a single game.
As mentioned in our “Game Ball” column, the most impressive aspect of Cooper’s performance lies outside of the box score — after multiple incidents of failing to get two feet in bounds, Amari made that a point of emphasis during the week, and it paid off.
There were two plays on Sunday where Cooper had to toe-tap to get both of his feet in bounds. One play in particular was most impressive, when he dragged his foot early and made a catch falling out of bounds.
Seeing Amari Cooper immediately improve on getting both feet in bounds really speaks to his work ethic and dedication to his craft.
— Nick Hjeltness (@NickHjeltness) October 16, 2016
The only downside to Cooper’s performance was the night and day difference between the first and the second half. Before halftime, he already had 9 catches for 117 yards, meaning he had just 1 catch for 12 yards the rest of the way. He had 4 targets in the second half, compared to 9 in the first half.
2. Limited Penalties
Oakland only committed 3 penalties for 25 yards! (Exclamation point for added enthusiasm)
When you struggle as bad as the Raiders did on Sunday, you are forced to get excited about the little things.
But jokes aside, it is certainly a positive that for as ugly as this game was, and for as bad as the weather and the playing conditions were, that Oakland committed just 3 penalties.
Kelechi Osemele and Donald Penn were both called for a hold, and Brynden Trawick was flagged for illegal formation on a Marquette King punt.
And this is actually the second week in a row that the Raiders have taken a fairly significant step forward in regard to penalties. Against San Diego, the Raiders were flagged 6 times for 36 yards. So the team is trending in the right direction with their discipline.
3. No New Injuries
That’s how bad this game was — there aren’t even three legitimate positives that can be taken away from Week 6.
But yeah, there were no additional Raiders injured on Sunday, so that’s a plus. Yippee.