Raiders Finally Home, Rally Against Lions

Final: DET 24 OAK 31 (4-4)

I'll admit, I'm a little behind on some things. I have not posted the weekly roundup for the Lakers. And I just saw them rally against the Bulls. That'll come later. But first things first, the Raiders are finally home in Oakland. It felt like forever in a daunting road trip. Certainly for Oakland fans, every home game counts. The Raiders just have to live up to their end of the bargain and take care of that Town Business. They did that on Sunday against the Lions. It wasn't pretty, but they got the victory.

The only negative I can think of this game was the pass defense. The Lions have one of the most underrated deep threat duos in Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones Jr. The two of them combined racked up 258 receiving yards. If I remember, Jones already went over 100 yards by the time the first half ended. Then again, we have to understand that this defense is still a WIP. There's still so many moving parts here. But they have that bend but don't break mentality and it showed this game. Worley had that crazy pick into the end zone. I feel that was the game changer for the Raiders. The fake punt where Derek Carrier rushed for 27 yards was the 2nd game changer (even though they ended up empty handed on the possession after).

Offensively, let me just say it right here, Josh Jacobs is a beast! The O-line wasn't even 100% this game. Rodney Hudson out indefinitely. Trent Brown exited the game early. But, he still gashed the Lions for 120 yards and 2 TDs. I still remember my comment on how running backs from 'Bama don't turn out good in the pros. Jacobs definitely has a chance to break that curse. He can run, catch out the back field, pass protect, and he has low maintenance so that means fresher legs. Jacobs' rookie season has been nothing short of spectacular. Derek Carr had another clean game again. We're probably seeing 2016 Carr come back from the dead. He made a throw to Jalen Richard while he was covered for a big gainer. He extended the play for the game winning TD to Hunter Renfrow. The offense carried this team and we're starting to see the unit buy into Gruden's system.

I want to go back to that stop that won them the game. Matthew Stafford and the Lions were stopped short of the goal line on third down (probably by about three yards). They had no timeouts, but the Raiders called timeout with 8 seconds to allow the Lions to draw up a play. At first, I was a bit mad at it. Those are decisions that lose a game. If the Lions scored, they probably would've escaped with a W. Now that I think about it, the Raiders defense was discombobulated and at least that gave them a chance for them to align the right personnel. The crazy thing about is the Lions did not have their best receivers on that 4th down. It was a chain of "what are you doing" decisions, but good thing the Lions wounded up making that mistake.

With this win, the Raiders are now at .500. They're still in the hunt with Kansas City for the AFC West title with Mahomes still sidelined. As I said countless times, this is the Raiders' best stretch for this season. They have to take advantage of this favorable stretch. The Chiefs are still the likeliest loss. The Chargers might have their groove back after they fired Ken Wisenhunt, but they are beatable. This upcoming Thursday Night game against the Chargers will be a great barometer on the progress of this team. Expect a playoff-like atmosphere for that game.