The Oakland Raiders went into New Jersey and laid an egg in a disappointing 34-3 debacle against the New York Jets. The game was by far the ugliest of the season as the team didn’t look prepared for the Jets defense or offense.
The defense reminded us how inconsistent they have been all season being unable to slow down a hot Jets’ offense. The Jets averaged 6.6 yards per play, and Darnold finished with 315 yards passing completing 20-29 of his passes.
Darnold was making sandwiches with the team he had to throw the football, and created plays outside the pocket, picking the defense apart with great throws. With the Chiefs coming up next week, the defense can’t have another performance like this.
Week 12 was the worst performance by the offense this season. Carr completed less 60% of his passes for the first time since Week 2, and the Raiders could not run the football, which is their bread and butter.
Drops were a big issue as well stalling too early drives with receivers not able to hold onto the football. Ugly performance all around but this is more of an outlier when it comes into the offense on a week to week basis
This week’s winners column will be short, but there were plenty of losers. Let’s look at the winners and losers from Week 12.
Winner: Kansas City Chiefs
The primary winner from this horrid outing by the Raiders is the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs were on a bye and were half-game up on the Raiders going into this matchup. Now they control the AFC West and all but eliminate the Raiders with a win next week from division contention.
It displays how a big of a letdown this was for this young Raiders team. In November, every game counts, and to no show against a bad Jets team took a massive blow to their playoff chances. They were knocked out of the wild card spot and are now in a four-way tie with the Steelers having the tiebreaker.
The Chiefs are now in control, and the Raiders head to arrowhead and play another game in cold weather against Andy Reid off a bye. Reid is 15-2 coming off a bye and licking his chops looking at the Raiders defense. Next week could be trouble, and Carr’s quote after the game sums it up perfectly.
Loser: HC Jon Gruden
The main loser of the day was Jon Gruden, who didn’t have his young team prepared to play on the road. Gruden didn’t seem prepared himself either for the Jets defense, which led to an embarrassing, offensive performance and a 34-3 loss in the meadowlands.
Gruden has designed amazing game plans all season and deserves credit for this team overachieving. Sunday was different as the Raiders offense had no answers for Gregg Williams’s defense.
Gruden continues his lousy luck with challenges missing a chance to challenge a spot on the run by Josh Jacobs that appeared past the marker. Instead, he challenged the next play that was clearly not the first down out of desperation.
Electing to kick the field goal that was missed by Carlson was a huge turning point in the game, as well. The Raiders had a fourth and two near the red zone and could have gone for it to keep the momentum from a good drive. Gruden has completely outcoached this whole game, and hopefully, he rallies the troops to get ready for the Chiefs.
Loser: Raiders secondary
The Jets were hot coming into this game, and the Raiders secondary were as well. The Raiders streak ended, and the Jets continued as the Raiders were picked apart, allowing huge plays all over the field.
The Raiders had no answers for Sam Darnold, and he was able to scan the field finding holes in the secondary. The defense completely imploded in the second half starting on the Jets’ first drive, where Darnold hit Braxton Barrios for massive gain that quickly led to points.
Then the next drive the Jets ran a flea flicked back to Darnold, and the Raiders defensive backs left Robby Anderson open for another big play leading to a touchdown.
The Raiders got a pass last week facing Ryan Finley, but you could tell the Raiders were injury-riddled in the secondary during this game. They genuinely miss Karl Joseph at safety who was a tone-setter as well with his big hits. Hopefully, Lamarcus Joyner can come back next week and give this secondary a much-needed boost because Sunday was horrendous in every way.
Loser: WR Tyrell Williams
Williams was coming off an excellent performance against the Bengals last week, where he made contested catches down the field for his quarterback. This week was completely different as Williams struggled to help out his quarterback, only catching two of his five targets on the day.
William’s drop issues were a constant problem in Los Angeles, and they crept back up this week. On the Raiders’ second drive of the football game, the Raiders had a third and 13 and had the right play against the Jets zone coverage.
Carr knowing he was going to have an open Williams over the middle, threw a dart that hit him right in the numbers. Williams dropped the past, stalling a drive that could have kept the Raiders in the game.
Willams drop issues are going come up again and display the Raiders still need an upgrade at the wide receivers position with teams taking away Darren Waller.
It cost the Raiders the game against the Texans when he couldn’t bring in two back shoulder throws on the Raiders’ final possession. The ten million dollar man needs to be more reliable as we get into December.
