Raiders Wild Card vs Bengals: 3 studs, 3 duds from the loss

Raiders Wild Card vs Bengals: 3 studs, 3 duds from the loss

Studs – The Defense

The Raiders’ much-maligned defense has come up huge in recent weeks and they did well against Cincinnati considering their early struggles. Although they did not force the Bengals to punt until the third quarter, they forced them into two short field goals in the first half including one after the Carr strip-sack. They could have made it three if the touchdown to Tyler Boyd was correctly ruled incomplete due to the early whistle.

The defense stepped up in a big way in the second half and kept the Bengals from scoring a touchdown, limiting them to just 6 points on two McPherson field goals. Their biggest stop of the game came with the Raiders needing a stop to keep their hopes alive late in the fourth quarter.

They forced a three and out and got the offense back with 2 minutes remaining to give them a chance to drive for the game-tying touchdown.

All three levels of the Raiders defense stepped up as they held Burrow to under 250 yards, kept Joe Mixon under 50 yards rushing, and did well on the Bengals receivers save for Ja’Marr Chase. The pass rush was not as potent as it was against LA as they sacked Burrow twice and hit him just 5 times but the sacks were timely as they forced a field goal and kept the Bengals from scoring to open the second half.

This was an overall impressive performance from a unit that was severely undermanned in the secondary and lost starting LB Divine Deablo to a concussion midgame. The Raiders will be undoubtedly looking to strengthen the unit in the offseason but they have some tremendous building blocks in Maxx Crosby, Deablo, and others.