5 takeaways from the Raiders’ blowout loss to the Patriots
By John Buhler
The Oakland Raiders were steamrolled by the New England Patriots on Sunday in Week 11, 33-8. Here are five takeaways from the Raiders’ dismal performance.
After what we all saw go down on the Estadio Azteca gridiron on Sunday afternoon, it’s really difficult to be optimistic about the state of the Oakland Raiders. Their season was riding on this must-win game versus the New England Patriots. Instead, Oakland got steamrolled on a neutral site, 33-8.
For a while, Oakland was within striking distance. This game featured a bunch of Stephen Gostkowski field goals, including a ridiculous 62-yard make to send it into the half. Oakland was on the precipice of being shut out before quarterback Derek Carr was able to connect with Amari Cooper for six. A Michael Crabtree two-point conversion gave the Raiders a total of eight points in the ball game.
In a season full of disappointment, this loss to the Patriots was largely expected. However given that the Raiders had a full two weeks to get ready for this one coming off the bye, we would have expected a better effort out of this bunch.
Now that we’ve had some time to stomach another painful loss, let’s take a look at what we can extract out of this awful performance by the Raiders. Here are the five biggest takeaways from the brutal loss to New England.
The two turnovers by the Raiders were demoralizing.
To win this game, Oakland had to be a net positive in turnover differential. Since this team cannot force turnovers, that might have been too much to ask. Though the Raiders only turned the football over twice, those offensive miscues were enough to put this game out of reach early for the Silver and Black.
After punting on their first drive, the Raiders would get methodically worked down by the New England offense on a 15-play, 87-yard drive for the first points of the game. Down 7-0, Carr would overthrow wide receiver Johnny Holton and get picked off by safety Duron Harmon. Though New England would punt on the ensuing possession, this pick took the wind out of Oakland’s sails for sure.
A few possessions later, New England would be up 14-0 on the Raiders after another touchdown. Oakland would put together a solid drive of its own. The only problem was that wide receiver Seth Roberts would fumble the ball in the red zone, killing an 11-play drive for the Raiders.
New England would do enough on that possession to set up the 62-yard field goal by Gostkowski to take a 17-0 lead into halftime. It was a 10-point swing that Oakland could never recover from. Though the Patriots only manage three points off the two Raiders’ turnovers, the game was pretty much lost when Roberts coughed it up. All confidence was gone for the Silver and Black after that play.