Las Vegas Raiders: Late errors crush hopes of a winning season
The Las Vegas Raiders went down in a heartbreaking loss to the Miami Dolphins Saturday, dropping to 7-8 and completely out of the playoff picture.
In the NFL, you win as a team and lose as one unit. The Las Vegas Raiders fell to 7-8 because of a sequence of events and judgment calls they would handle differently in hindsight, except for one decision.
In the postgame press conference, head coach Jon Gruden didn’t second-guess his decision to settle for a field goal with a little more than a minute left in the game (h/t The Athletic’s Vic Tafur):
Gruden doesn't regret taking a knee before the FG. Wanted to kill the clock and left the Dolphins 19 seconds at their 25. "The probability is very remote."
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) December 27, 2020
Gruden said they lost by scoring a TD and leaving too much time against the Chiefs. So they went the other way and killed the clock and took the FG.
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) December 27, 2020
Despite the Miami Dolphins’ slight chance to pull off a comeback down 25-23 with 19 seconds left in the contest, they managed to move into field-goal range to split the uprights for the game-winning score. While emotions run high across social media, and likely within the Raiders’ locker room, one can spread the blame across all three phases of the game, which include Gruden’s questionable judgment.
Let’s rewind Saturday’s painful fourth-quarter experience.
Daniel Carlson misses extra-point attempt
If we’re going to pinpoint specific moments or plays, here’s where the trouble started for the Raiders. With an ailing groin, quarterback Derek Carr showed extraordinary toughness on 1st-and-20, extending the play with his legs and throwing a dart to wideout Nelson Agholor, who scored on an 85-yard touchdown reception.
Agholor flipped his hips and turned upfield with cornerback Byron Jones draped all over him in coverage. He weaved in and out of running lanes to avoid defenders en route to a touchdown. The Raiders felt the momentum shift in their favor, but Daniel Carlson missed the extra point.
Based on the final score, you can see Carlson’s missed extra-point attempt came back to hurt the Raiders. Jason Sanders’ 44-yard field goal would’ve sent the game into overtime rather than seal Vegas’ fate.
If anyone feels the weight of this loss on their shoulders (or leg), Carlson probably carried the biggest burden when he walked off the field, but he’s not the sole reason for the Raiders’ fourth-quarter collapse.