Score: OAK 3 SEA 24
Alright welcome in to the halftime post of the Raiders' week 9 matchup against the defending Super Bowl champion, Seahawks where the Seahawks go into the locker room with a 21 point lead over the Raiders.
The Positives
Defense. You take away the two rushing TDs by Lynch and the Raiders have only given up three points. Lynch will do his thing in the running game, but the Raider D has done a great job containing Russell Wilson and not biting on his pump fakes. You never know when Wilson's going to throw or take off, but the defense is holding their own down there.
The Negatives
Turnovers. This is the story so far for the Raiders. The first turnover, Derek Carr throws to Bruce Irvin for a pick 6, Carr throws again, this time to Sherman's side, gets picked off, Carrie takes off on a kickoff return, fumbles, ball falls into the hands of the kicker, Steven Hauschka. Without those turnovers, the Raiders would've pulled in a lot closer, but bad teams tend to make mistakes against good teams and the Raiders are demonstrating that.
Penalties. Poor D.J. Hayden is getting picked on. Hayden's penalties were the sole reason why Seattle's offense was able to run it down with Lynch for 2 TDs. The first one was off a P.I. and the second one Hayden was taunting after bringing a Seattle player down. The Raiders committed two other penalties, I forgot where they happened. Other than this and the turnovers are what is killing the Raiders so far in this game.
Bottom Line
This Seahawk team is anemic on offense, they're missing 8 of their starters this game, yet the defending champs are still putting a hurtin on the Raiders. The offense has gotta find a way to get it going, especially the running game. Jason Tarver has stepped up his play calling on defense and the defense is keeping us alive. Greg Olson has to step it up with his offensive play calling, but he's probably going to keep running up the middle again and making these conservative pass plays.
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