Oakland Raiders playoff hopes crushed after tough loss
By Daniel Davis
The Oakland Raiders needed a win on Sunday to keep their slim playoff hopes alive, and they lost the game on a late Jacksonville Jaguars touchdown.
The Oakland Raiders have ended their playoff hopes in 2019 with a loss inside the Coliseum, their final home game in that building before the team is moving to Las Vegas for the 2020 season. Oakland went into half time with a 16-3 lead and held Jacksonville to less than 100 yards of offense, but it was not enough.
On the opening drive of the second half for the Jaguars, they went 70 yards on 6 plays to make it a 10-16 game. Oakland continues to struggle in the second half of games as they’ve been outscored 41-0 in the third quarter in the last four games.
However bad the Raiders played, the refs also made a major mistake. Derek Carr slid down on a third-down and went out of bounds late in the fourth quarter. But since he gave himself up, the ball was just short of the first-down with about 2:30 left in the fourth quarter.
Oakland challenged the spot of the ball but according to the NFL rule book, if a player gives himself up you can’t challenge that ball spot. Oakland was penalized for a delay of game as Carr and Gruden were talking about what they were going to do on the 4th down and 6 with only a 3 point lead after the challenge flag was thrown.
Because of this, the Raiders had to kick a field goal in which Carlson missed but Jacksonville was charged with running into the kicker and the Raiders could kick the ball again which Carlson missed it for the second time – both times wide right.
What should’ve happened was after the challenge flag was thrown, the clock should have run down to the 2-minute warning since there were less than 40 seconds to the 2-minute warning. The Raiders were then forced into a field goal because of it being 4th and 11.
The offense was also on a roll and after the Jaguars penalty, which gave them that yardage back, they should’ve gone for it on 4th down and tried to go for the touchdown to win the game. Instead, they miss the field goal and give a hot Jacksonville offense the ball back at the 35 yard-line with 2:20 seconds left.
Gardner Minshew and company shredded the Raiders defense in the final drive, moving the ball with ease down the field, and scoring a touchdown to give themselves their first lead of the game. It was an absolutely embarrassing end to the Raiders era in the Bay Area.
This is just another string of bad management and the defense’s lack of playing in the second half.