Las Vegas Raiders and the art of blowing double-digit leads
By Keith Ricci
Las Vegas Raiders and the art of blowing double-digit leads
The Rams debacle
The collapse to the Rams was the best example of this. After Josh Jacobs injured his hand very early in the 3rd quarter, the Raiders continued running the ball and only called 6 passing plays the entire 2nd half. 75% of the Raiders 2nd half possessions in Los Angeles were three and outs.
This isn’t only a reflection of the play call though. Player execution is also an issue. They just seem uninterested, which reflects in their performance, and then they quickly become frustrated which also reflects in their performance. There are no stats necessary to support this. It’s quite visible to see just watching the game that the players are underperforming drastically compared to the first half. Again, it makes you wonder what happened in the locker room for everyone to seem so bored.
But it wasn’t just the offense in these games, the defense fell apart too. Using the Rams game as an example again, putting minimal pressure on their new QB Baker Mayfield for most of the 4th quarter and easing up the secondary, allowed for a 75-yard TD drive followed by a 98-yard TD drive to end the game.
On the play that resulted in the game-winning touchdown, Baker Mayfield told reporters after the game he couldn’t believe the Raiders lined up in press man when leading by 6 points in the red zone. Former NFL defensive genius Wade Phillips echoed the same sentiment. He tweeted, “Really unbelievable that the Raiders would be in press man with no deep help and with 6-point lead!”.