5 takeaways from Oakland Raiders’ win over New York Giants
By John Buhler
The Oakland Raiders held on to beat the New York Giants 24-17 in Week 13 to improve to 6-6 on the year. Here are the five biggest takeaways from the game.
The Oakland Raiders got it done at home on Sunday afternoon, as they were able to hold off the struggling New York Giants to get a victory in Week 13, 24-17. This was the Raiders’ second win in a row, as the team has gone 4-2 in its last six games.
At 6-6, this isn’t where Raider Nation expected its team to be heading into the final quarter of the season, but we’ll most certainly take it. After an early season swoon, the Raiders have to some degree found themselves. This isn’t the most high-octane offense in football and this defense of the Raiders is far from championship-caliber, yet this team finds ways to win games.
Oakland needed this win to stay alive in the AFC playoff picture. A seventh loss on the year would have had the Silver and Black finishing at a best 9-7 on the year. Not sure that is good enough to make the AFC playoffs as a wild card team or even the AFC West division winner.
Obviously, there is a lot to dissect with the Raiders’ most recent win over the Giants. It wasn’t a pretty game, but we’ll take a win in any shape or manner it comes. Here are the five biggest takeaways from the Raiders’ Week 13 home victory over the Giants.
Derek Carr had more confidence as a passer as the game went along.
A big thing the Raiders had to overcome in this game was being heavily depleted in the receiving corps. Oakland was without its top-two wide receivers in Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper. Crabtree was suspended for this game due to fighting Denver Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib last week. Cooper was ruled out on Friday with a myriad of injuries suffered in Week 12, including a concussion.
Not having Cooper or Crabtree initially made it hard for Raiders quarterback Derek Carr to get yards in the passing game initially, but he inevitably prevailed. To be fair, throwing the ball on the Giants’ secondary isn’t all that easy. This was a defensive backfield that was the gold standard in the league last year. Many of the same players remain in that part of Steve Spagnuolo’s defense.
Carr struggled at first to find reliable receiving targets for much of the first three quarters. Oakland took slim 10-7 lead into the fourth quarter. Eventually, Carr was able to spread the ball around to receivers Cordarrelle Patterson, Seth Roberts and Johnny Holton, as well as tight end Clive Walford.
On the afternoon, Carr would complete 22 of 36 passes for 287 yards and a touchdown. He was able to hit that most important yards per attempt threshold of 8.0 in this ball game. The Raiders have won all six of their games when Carr averages at least 8.0 yards per attempt. His touchdown late to Holton was what ultimately sealed the deal for the Raiders.