Oakland Raiders 2019 Week 12 review: 3 stars, 3 duds

1. Raiders Wide Receivers

Drops have plagued the Oakland Raiders for years, dating back to the Amari Cooper and Seth Roberts seasons. But boy, oh boy have they been bad with drops this season and this week especially. Overly optimistic fans will cite the weather for the drops against the Jets, but Tyrell Williams in particular has shown a penchant for dropping passes in big situations throughout the season.

His early drop on third down killed the Raiders momentum. Hunter Renfrow had an uncharacteristic drop on third down, but he took some massive, perhaps illegal, hits in this game and he is not to blame. Regardless, the glaring need at wide receiver reared its ugly head again as the Raiders could not capitalize on some solid first half throws from Derek Carr.

2. Josh Jacobs/Offensive Line

This one is hard to levy simply against Josh Jacobs as it is not entirely his fault, but the running game was atrocious against the Jets who are admittedly good against the run. The front seven in New York is beefy and good at taking away the run. Jacobs was held to 34 yards on 10 carries and was really never even a factor in this one.

That burden falls on the offensive line as well, though, as they were not winning their battles up front. The pass protection was not much better, so the offensive line really did not live up to the standard that they have set through the 10 games prior. That happens, at least they got it all out of their system this week and can go into Kansas City fresh.

3. Raiders Secondary

The Jets offense on Sunday’s was every Madden players worst nightmare; a 12-year-old running mesh on every play and waiting for the crossing route to get open. The Raiders got cooked on underneath crossing routes on repeat and could never seem to find the solution to it. It didn’t matter whether they ran zone, press man coverage, regardless they could not seem to track down the Jets offensive weapons.

Demaryius Thomas, Robby Anderson, Le’Veon Bell, it didn’t matter who it was, they were open and Sam Darnold found them. It was an embarrassing performance from the secondary and even the linebackers to an extent. The unit has been hit with some injuries and surely it would have been nice to have Lamarcus Joyner back there, but it was simply a matter of execution. If Paul Guenther doesn’t get this defense sorted out, the Chiefs could put up a 60 spot next week.

Honorable Mention: Clete Blakeman

No excuses need to be made, the Raiders lost regardless, but the officiating was awful. And that includes the standard of terrible officiating fans have gotten used to in 2019. If you haven’t yet, go back and watch the roughing the passer call on Maurice Hurst and the non-call pass interference that left Hunter Renfrow on the turf.

The NFL needs to do something as the sport is slowly becoming harder and harder to watch. But who are we kidding, we all know we will be back on Sunday to scream at our televisions.