FSM Essential Recap: Week 9- Raiders vs Giants

FSM Essential Recap: Week 9 – Raiders vs Giants

Las Vegas Raiders (5-3) | New York Giants (3-5)

The Raiders fall short against the Giants on the road as they lost 23-16.

After winning two games in a row and a bye week, the Raiders seemed primed for an excellent showing despite going cross country and playing in New York against the Giants. Unfortunately, the Silver and Black weren’t able to put their best foot forward this go around and fell to the G-Men in a 23-16 defeat.

With the loss of wide receiver Henry Ruggs, the Raiders would be without their young ascending wide receiver and their top deep threat. Add that on top of a new head coach, an inexperienced offensive line, and traveling to the east coast time zone, the Raiders looked very lackluster in this game despite brief moments of excellent play.

While traveling cross-country west to east to play has always been a problem, the Raiders were coming off a bye week which would’ve given them enough time to make the proper adjustments to be more in sync on the road. But, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

Offensively, the Raiders looked flat footed most of the day as they couldn’t get things going on offense.

Being one of the NFL’s top offenses, much is expected when Derek Carr leads the squad on the field. A balanced attack, spreading the ball around to different receivers, taking what the defense gives you, and going for the big splash play from time to time, has been the blueprint for success for the Raiders this season. Unfortunately, while the team tried to do so, they never seemed to find their rhythm long enough to get into a proper flow.

Carr seemed to be off on throws he usually makes, having several of his passes go high over his targets, one of which was an overthrow to tight end Darren Waller, which would’ve been a touchdown. Unfortunately, Carr did throw two interceptions, and both were plays made by the Giants’ safety Xavier McKinney. He returned it for a touchdown in the third quarter, and the second was the game sealer in the fourth quarter, which ended the Raiders’ last drive.

The offensive line for the Raiders didn’t give Carr much time in the pocket without a defender applying pressure which forced several errant throws from the quarterback. Josh Jacobs had some solid runs, but most of his big runs came on cutbacks once the defense closed his running lanes.

While Carr targeted eight different receivers, none besides Waller could get much separation down the field. Bryan Edwards and Zay Jones, the two receivers asked to step up in the absence of Ruggs, were targeted a total of eight times and had just one catch for twenty yards between them.

It is just one game on the road across the country, but the Raiders will need to get their offense back on track and figure out what to do at wide receiver.

The Raiders defense had a decent showing but wasn’t able to carry the load left by the offense to help get a victory.

With the hardships of the offense, the defense came to play and had several good moments of applying pressure on the quarterback and only gave up 110 yards passing to Giants quarterback Daniel Jones.

Once again, the defensive line unit caused chaos in the backfield as Yannick Ngakoue registered two sacks, including one that forced a fumble, and the defense recovered it.

Rookie cornerback Nate Hobbs got in on the action and got a sack while linebacker Denzel Perryman led the team again in tackles.

Despite some bright spots, it wasn’t enough as the Raiders also allowed former Bronco and Raiders running back Devin Booker to gash them for 99 yards on the ground with a 4.7 yard average per rushing attempt. The Giants’ offense didn’t dominate in any way whatsoever, but they did enough to get big plays when needed, have excellent field position to start drives, and only turned the ball over once as opposed to three by the Raiders.

It was another solid defensive effort, which looks to get better and better week by week. They just couldn’t generate enough turnovers to give the offense more chances to find the end zone. But overall, this game was another good step in the right direction for a unit that hasn’t had many bright spots over the last decade.

The Raiders will now return to Las Vegas to welcome division rival the Kansas City Chiefs to town.

Despite the loss, the Raiders didn’t get blown out, and if not for the three turnovers and a missed field goal by kicker Daniel Carlson, the Raiders might’ve been able to pull out a victory. Regardless, it’s time to move on, get back home, and focus on playing the Chiefs in an AFC West showdown. Division rival games can be tricky as both teams and coaching staffs know each other so well from playing twice a season. It’ll be imperative for the Raiders to focus and tune up some issues on offense. They will add another playmaker at wide receiver early in the week in DeSean Jackson, hoping he can add speed to this explosive offense and help it regain its form for the rest of the season.

Next week the Raiders will play the Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium for Sunday Night football. Game starts at 5:20 and can be seen on NBC.

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-Kalani Lua – Franchise Sports Media

Follow Kalani on Twitter @klua11

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