Raiders have been abysmal in critical situations
We’ll get to that “play,” but even before that embarrassment, the Raiders were awful during critical times of the game, and it started with their poor red-zone efficiency.
The Raiders came into the game as one of the worst red-zone teams in the league in terms of touchdown percentage (only 56%), and they were bad once again verse the Dolphins. Las Vegas was 1-for-4 in the red zone, settling for three field goals, which kept the Dolphins in the game and kept the pressure on their shaky defense.
Twice inside the Dolphins’ 10-yard line, Jon Gruden made puzzling play calls and personnel decisions, as Josh Jacobs didn’t receive a touch in either of those goal-line situations.
However, as bad as that was, we’ve come to expect that type of bad red-zone play from the Raiders. What we did not expect was their struggles on third down. Las Vegas is second in the league at nearly a 50% percent conversion rate (49.14%), yet on Saturday night, they went 0-10.
Amazingly, the Raiders still seemed poised to win the game despite these two troubling stats.
And then we have that lovely heave at the end of the game by Ryan Fitzpatrick, where the Raiders attempted their best New York Jets impersonation and did not disappoint. Rookie Damon Arnette appeared to be in a Cover 2, and despite the late-game situation and zero threat in the flat, he did not run underneath the receiver going vertical.
Isaiah Johnson, who was playing deep safety, was too late coming over to help, and as a result, Dolphins receiver Mack Hollins made the catch and redeemed himself after dropping a pass at the goal-line a few drives earlier. And to top it off, Arden Key made his presence known with an awful face mask penalty to put Miami in immediate field goal range for the win.
Overall, the Raiders were terrible in critical situations throughout the game, resulting in a playoff eliminating loss.