It’s Not that the Raiders Lost to Denver, it’s how they lost to Denver

It’s a week later and we still can’t put the Oakland Raiders Sunday Night Football debacle behind us. Why? Because they looked almost as bad this week.

The game ended on an interception while the Raiders were trying to win the game with a go ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter but if you only just turned into the game, you might be fooled into thinking Oakland played well enough to be in the position to win it.

That, however, does not tell the true story of this game. The Raiders weren’t as bad as they were in Washington, but it was really only a few players who stepped up the plate, not the whole team or even one side of the ball. At the end of the day, the reason this game was close had more to do with the Broncos shooting themselves in the foot than with the Raiders doing anything impressive.

The Raiders defense was once again a major reason the Raiders actually had a chance to win the game late after the offense failed to show up for the majority of the day. But the defense, once again, wasn’t great. The Broncos would have had more points on the board if not for a missed field goal and if not for the super human efforts of Khalil Mack and Mario Edwards, Jr., the defense would’ve looked pretty terrible.

Last week, I wrote that this wasn’t a must win game for the Raiders, but it was a game where the team must show up and play well. And unfortunately, they didn’t show up.

Aside from a 64 yard pass for a touchdown from Derek Carr to Johnny Holton, the Raiders offense would have only put up 190 yards. I know the Denver defense is elite, but this was supposed to be an elite Raiders offense and for the second week in a row, the offense looked average at best.

The offensive line once again struggled to look like the unit that’s supposed to be one of the best in the league. Amari Cooper was once again taken out of the game through double teams. They failed to establish a run game once again. And once again, the Raiders rookie OC just got out coached.

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