Oakland Raiders play uninspired football, lose final Battle of the Bay

The Oakland Raiders fell to 1-7 on the season as they lost the final “Battle of the Bay” to the San Francisco 49ers.

The league’s two worst teams found themselves matched up in primetime on Thursday Night Football, and early on it was the San Francisco 49ers taking advantage over East Bay neighbor Oakland Raiders. Despite receiving the first possession and building momentum, penalties in enemy territory forced Oakland to settle for three early points. The first quarterback to find the end zone was third-string Nick Mullens, who tossed an easy touchdown to Pierre Garcon on the 49ers first drive, taking a 7-3 lead after the first quarter.

Heading into the second quarter is was the same script that we saw in the first quarter and really all season long: the Raiders defense is just awful. Mullens threw for his second touchdown of the day to Kendrick Bourne, who was untouched in the end zone. From there on the Raiders offense just hit a wall, unable to generate any positive momentum or yardage for that matter. The offensive line looked lost and the poor pass protection did not help Derek Carr either, who was sacked four times in the first half.

From that point on the term “second-half adjustments” could not be more inaccurate for the Raiders. The offensive line, already playing poor compared to last week and now dealing with an injury to rookie tackle Kolton Miller, stood no chance against the San Francisco pass rush and the Raiders defense, essentially giving up in the second half, sealed the embarrassing loss in prime time.