Raiders Wild Card vs Bengals: 3 Surprises from the loss

Raiders Wild Card vs Bengals: 3 Surprises from the loss

Terrible Offensive Line play

The fact that the Raiders had such terrible offensive line play isn’t all that much surprising, because that has been the case for most of the season, but Saturday’s game was really bad. I’ve never once in my whole life of watching football seen more big plays brought back by penalties in one game, and with most of them being committed by one player, 2021 first-round pick Alex Leatherwood.

Now I while never was a fan of the Leatherwood pick, I tried to put my trust in the work that offensive line coach Tom Cable put in with left tackle Kolton Miller over the years, and hoped he could work that same magic with him. But so far in Year 1, it has not worked at all.

Holding penalty after holding penalty, then an illegal man downfield on a screen pass to Jacobs late in the game cost the Raiders big-time plays every single time and made the Raiders play behind the sticks against a defensive line that was dominating in pass protection.

If the Raiders do end up moving forward with Carr, this offensive line has to be priority No. 1 this offseason.