Las Vegas Raiders vs Seattle Seahawks 2022 Week 12: Studs and Duds
Las Vegas Raiders vs Seattle Seahawks 2022 Week 12: Studs and Duds
Josh McDaniels – Dud
It’s hard to pick on Josh McDaniels after his team came away with a huge victory, but he made several strange and overly conservative decisions throughout the game. The first came with the Raiders driving at the end of the first half as they got down to the Seattle 13-yard line with 14 seconds left and instead of taking a shot to the end zone, he kicked a field goal on second down.
The next strange decision was on 4th and inches with 9 minutes left in the game as McDaniels called for a pitch to the outside when the Raiders needed less than the length of a football to get a first down. With the new rules that allow players to push the QB from behind, this has been a nearly automatic conversion across the NFL. The Raiders failed on that fourth down and that allowed the Seahawks to get the ball at just about midfield at a crucial time in the game.
McDaniels’ conservative nature came up once again as the Raiders got the ball on their own 9-yard line with 40 seconds to go and two timeouts remaining. We understand that the game was tied so they did not need to score to extend the game but Derek Carr has excelled in this situation numerous times over his career. Instead of giving the keys to Carr, McDaniels called two straight runs and let the game go to overtime.
The last decision came in overtime as the Raiders faced fourth and two from the Seattle 38 on the first possession of the extra period. Once again, rather than trusting Derek Carr in the office to get 2 yards, McDaniels sent out Daniel Carlson to attempt a 56-yard field goal on a cold Seattle afternoon.
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The ever-reliable Carlson missed the field goal and though the Raiders ultimately won the game, they did so despite the strange decisions of their head coach. McDaniels has done little to earn the confidence of Raider Nation this year, and he will need to avoid more blunders like this if he wants to change their opinion of him.