Las Vegas Raiders get a boost from Brian Hoyer in a 21-17 victory over New England Patriots

Raiders dominate the Patriots in the first half

In the first half, the Raiders were the exact same team they had been all season: a team that has no identity on offense. Defenses have no reason to be fearful of Jimmy Garoppolo beating them down the field, so the box is loaded for running back Josh Jacobs. 

As such, they become a team that routinely lines up in condensed sets with the intention to be physical and run the ball, but instead just makes things easier for the defense to load the box. So as usual, the ground game was a struggle. 

With Garoppolo the Raiders will simply never be a good offensive unit. As Bill Belichick tends to do, he took away the Raiders' best player, Davante Adams. For Garoppolo, this is a catastrophic situation as you can almost see the panic switch flip in his head when he notices Adams isn’t going to be open on the play. 

He would finish the first half 14/22 for 162 yards and both a touchdown and an interception. The score went to Jakobi Meyers who has been a favorite of Garoppolo’s since week one. After a nice catch in the middle of the end zone, he came down with his fourth touchdown of the season. 

The interception, while not really his fault, was another hospital ball from Garoppolo who has thrown more than a few in the direction of Adams. Caught for a moment, the ball was dislodged, and caught by New England. 

On the defense, the unit got another interception from safety Tre’von Moehrig who has had an incredible season this far and had a huge part in changing the narrative around the unit and helped the Raiders go to halftime with a 13-3 lead.