The Las Vegas Raiders suffered a brutal 30-29 overtime loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. While the offense had its best showing of the season thanks to Brock Bowers finally returning to full strength, the team fell to 2-6, and their postseason aspirations are seemingly dead in the water.
Several frustrating moments contributed to the loss. Most notably, there was an offsetting penalty call in the third quarter where Stone Forsythe did not appear to do anything to warrant a personal foul. Another key moment was Geno Smith double-clutching on the potential game-winning two-point conversion, with both Tyler Lockett and Jakobi Meyers open.
One thing that flew under the radar, however, was Pete Carroll's poor usage of his challenges and timeouts at the end of both the first and second halves. The Raiders' head coach called just one timeout in regulation, something that came back to hurt the team.
Pete Carroll's decision-making haunts the Raiders in loss to the Jaguars
The Raiders had the opportunity to improve to 3-5 on Sunday; however, several costly mistakes from Carroll contributed to the loss. The first came early in the second quarter on 3rd-and-1 as Ashton Jeanty clearly picked up a first down, but was called short. Las Vegas' head coach did not challenge the play, and the Raiders turned the ball over on downs on the next play.
Carroll's rough day continued at the end of the second quarter. He inexplicably did not call a timeout and attempt to ice Jaguars kicker Cam Little on an unlikely 68-yard attempt, despite having two timeouts remaining.
Little has shown that he has the leg to connect from such range, as he nailed a 70-yard kick in the preseason. Little proved Carroll's decision costly, as he did not flinch and connected on the field goal, setting a new NFL record and cutting the Raiders' lead to 6-3 heading into halftime.
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Las Vegas also had a 23-20 lead late in the fourth quarter and, once again, Carroll chose not to use his timeouts to ice Little despite having three remaining. Jacksonville's kicker made him pay for a second time as he made a game-tying 48-yard field goal with 16 seconds left on the clock.
Raheem Mostert, who had a huge day on special teams, returned the ensuing kickoff to the Raiders' 34-yard line. After Geno Smith took a sack on the first play of the drive, Carroll simply let the clock run out rather than calling a timeout and giving his offense another shot to pick up 25 yards to win the game.
While there is no guarantee that the challenge or any of the timeouts would have worked in Las Vegas' favor, Carroll was far too content not utilizing any of his timeouts. With the team sitting at 2-5, there was no reason to play conservatively, and, ultimately, the decisions came back to bite the Raiders in the heartbreaking loss.