Raiders vs Cardinals 2022 Week 2: What surprised us in the 29-23 loss
By Preston Seyl
The Las Vegas Raiders fall short in Week 2 against the Arizona Cardinals, with a lead of 23-7 at the top of the fourth quarter, the Raiders weren’t able to shut the door.
The Raiders were looking to get back on track against a not-so-stellar Cardinals team coming off a crushing loss to the Cheifs in Week 1. Las Vegas got out to a 20-0 lead at halftime, and the defense was well prepared and looked to shut down the Cardinals’ offense down for the rest of the afternoon.
However, the Raiders’ offense came out in the second half uninspired with no sense of urgency to put the game away, and that was clear from the start. This left the window open for the Cardinals to come back, and come back they did, eventually forcing overtime, and beating the Raiders inside Allegiant Stadium.
Here, we look at what surprised us on Sunday afternoon.
Raiders vs Cardinals 2022 Week 2: What surprised us in the 29-23 loss
Defense’s inability to put the game away
The defense in the first half was excellent, holding the high-octane college offense to 0 points at the half, which was a stellar defensive performance. In the second half, the Cardinals got it going through the air, with Zach Ertz and Marquise Brown starting to come alive, and start to wear down the Raiders defense.
The defense played well all up into the fourth quarter when they thought they had the game in the bag. Instead, the defensive playcalling got soft, and before you knew it, the momentum had swung to Arizona’s favor, and would eventually lead to defeat.
Josh McDaniels play calling
The offense was in a groove in the first half, and the run game and passing game were clicking a beautiful mix of efficiency that we have seen from a Josh McDaniels offense in the past. However, McDaniels went away from the run in the second half, going 3 and out, and giving the ball right back to the Cardinals without wearing the defense down.
McDaniels got too conservative and comfortable with the lead and went away from what was working in the first half. This is unacceptable, as he needs to learn how to put teams away, not allowing them to creep back in with conservative timid play calling.
Davante Adams’s disappearing act
Davante Adams got the Raiders on the board early on, but after that, he was basically a non-factor playing in front of the home crowd. He caught only two balls on seven targets, finished with 12 yards, and had kind of a disappearing act after the touchdown catch.
Sure, wide receivers can only catch balls thrown to them, and there were times when Derek Carr flat-out missed him being wide open. But this is Davante Adams, a player who never had a game like this in Green Bay, especially in big moments like a home opener. After force-feeding him in Week 1, it seems Las Vegas forgot about him in Week 2.