Welcome in to the full recap of the Raiders' home opener and regular season opener vs. the Cincinnati Bengals where the Raiders couldn't get anything going until garbage time as they get hammered by the Bengals 33-13.
Well Raider Nation, we've been on this road before. A lot of optimism during the offseason and once the Raiders hit the 1st game of the season, the optimism just fades out immediately. We expected AC/DC to light it up, Murray putting up big numbers on the ground, Mack and Aldon Smith slamming Andy Dalton to the dirt. None of those happened and to make matters worse, injuries piled on to the mess. Carr leaves in the 2nd quarter with a hand injury, Justin Ellis got injured, and most of the secondary got injured: Nate Allen, D.J. Hayden (though he was fine and able to play the whole game), and C-Wood at the end got shaken up. The domino effect was in full force from a negative standpoint.
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Marcel Reece, 3 receptions, 26 yards, 2 TDs. We can thank Reece for preventing a Bengals shutout. Although Matt McGloin was responsible for delivering those on-point throws to him, McGloin didn't have that great of a game with the 1st team offense and the offense as a whole was terrible all game long. Though both of his scores were in garbage time, Reece eased my depression from this game a little bit.
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Offense. Leave it to our offense to let the defense hang around and gas out. I thought the opening drive on the game for the offense, it set the tone that this game was going to be a long game. A couple of overthrows by Carr, waste of downs. I understand that Musgrave wanted to tune up some AC/DC early on by getting Cooper involved, but stick to your principle man and go by your principle of running the ball first. Penalties from the O-line also negated some big plays. Cooper and Olawale had big gains and Rodney Hudson and Austin Howard committed some penalties after the play or before the play to negate some positive yardage. The whole offensive game plan was terrible and Carr's injury added more insult to injury. Hopefully it's not anything serious in regards to Carr's hand. As much as I equally like McGloin as I like Carr, it'll put the offense back at square one since McGloin didn't take too many first team reps.
D-line pressure. Raiders got Aldon Smith, Khalil Mack, and Justin Tuck and they have Justin Ellis and Dan Williams to eat up some space inside, Andy Dalton's gonna be rattled right? Well, the hype of that lineup died down. They couldn't get any pressure on Dalton all game long. They batted down some balls, but look at the whole stat line for the defense, especially on the d-line, 0 sacks. Also doesn't help that Ellis walked out with an injury and the defense was gassed all game long since the offense couldn't extend drives. That left the secondary hanging and they got toasted big time because the D-line couldn't get in Andy Dalton's face.
Conclusion
Like I said at the end of the 4th quarter reaction, the Raiders have a lot to work on. It's understandable that it's a new coaching staff, there are new players, and there are new systems installed on both offense and defense. However, if I'm Jack Del Rio, I'm not happy with the way the season started. I laid out goals that I want to bring the Raiders back to greatness and win the division, but to start off the season like this in front of the home crowd is unacceptable. The Raiders get another shot at home next week taking on the Ravens and it's going to be essential that the Raiders don't start 0-2, especially since they opened up with two home games this season. However as history shows, the Ravens have had the Raiders' number in head-to-head meetings. It's going to be another tall task, but 0-2, with both losses on your own home field is not an option otherwise it'll be another long season of futility. I'll see you guys next week for the Ravens game.
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