Welcome in to the full recap of the Raiders' Week 11 matchup vs. the New England Patriots in Mexico City where it was a terrible trip to Mexico City this time around for the Raiders as they get taken to school by the defending champs 33-8.
No bueno, this game was for the Raiders. As I said, the Patriots are light years ahead of the Raiders and it showed today. But, it was more of the Raiders shooting themselves in the foot. They had a lot of opportunities on offense to be within striking distance, but dropped balls and turnovers doomed them. And the Patriots made them pay for the mistakes. The tone was set in the first quarter when Brady and the offense went no huddle. They were looking for the kill early on and absolutely gashed the defense at almost every turn.
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Marshawn Lynch/running game. This was the only positive going for the Raiders today. The running game was effective and helped keep drives alive. Marshawn was the epicenter of it. On the opening drive, they ran it with Lynch three times. He managed to rip one for about 15-20 yards, probably his best run of the day. It wasn't just Lynch, Richard racked up a couple of chunk yardage to extend drives. Out of all the things that didn't work at all for the Raiders this game, the running game was the only thing that worked.
(-)
Seth Roberts/Drops. This one was the one of the biggest momentum-killers in the game. Seth Roberts was responsible for a couple of those drops. Crabtree dropped an easy sideline throw as well. Holton and Coop dropped some balls. Going back to Seth, he was just terrible overall with the drops. Even worse, he fumbled the ball when fighting for the extra yards. He already had the first down. It just absolutely deflated (no pun intended) any momentum the Raiders had on that potential scoring drive.
Turnovers. Like I said in the previous negative, Seth Roberts' fumble was key because it erased all momentum the Raiders had on a scoring drive. Derek Carr threw an INT on a deep ball intended for Holton. The worse you can do is turn the ball over, especially against a team like the Patriots and the Raiders were down by a couple of scores already.
Derek Carr. Carr may have finished with over 200 passing yards, but most of his throws looked off today. Most of his deep balls hung over the air for a long time and the Patriots secondary has already caught on to the receivers. You also had one throw if I recall to Johnny Holton where the ball just bounced off the Patriots' receivers. He tried to find Coop in the short passing game, but it hit nothing but dirt.
Secondary. There's no surprise about this short handed secondary. We expected Brady and Cooks to make mince meat out of them. They beat Carrie and Nelson. Melifonwu had no business covering Cooks. It all centered around Reggie Nelson getting beat by half a step. That is a terrible matchup to begin with have Nelson give Safety help over the top against Cooks. We saw last year's game against the Saints when Cooks burned Sean Smith and Reggie Nelson for a 90+ yard score. The only time they were successful against the Cooks deep ball was when it was Karl Joseph who was providing the help. And they never made that adjustment ever again going forward into this game.
Coaching staff. Two weeks to prepare and this is the result? Here's the thing, Bill Belichick and the coaching staff made the team stay in Denver to simulate themselves to the altitude in Mexico City. Jack Del Rio and the coaching staff are like it's no big deal. They played in Mexico City last year, they're gonna stay in Oakland and fly overnight. That backfired big time. The worse part is that some of the players weren't used to it and were gasping for air because they were not on the team last year when the Raiders made the trip to Mexico City. We can pin it on the players for lack of execution, but the lack of preparation and exploiting mismatches on the coaches' part is one thing that has let the Raiders' season spiral out of control.
MVP
I can't believe on that 4th and 1 play, we didn't have Lynch in that backfield! He was instrumental in the Raiders' running game being the only thing that worked today against the Patriots. They need to keep feeding Beast Mode the ball.
Conclusion
I'm probably sure it wouldn't be much of a difference if they played this game in Oakland. The Patriots just outclassed the Raiders in every way possible. History-wise, Brady and Belichick have had a good track-record against Jack Del Rio-coached teams. The Patriots will be the cream of the crop as long Bill Belichick is roaming the sidelines. Tom Brady will retire eventually, but as long as he's still playing, New England's the team to beat. Frustrating, but sad reality. Now, that this game is out of the way, the Raiders are not mathematically eliminated. 10-6 is a sure shot to go to the playoffs. If they go 9-7, they're gonna need some scenarios to go their way to get in. If we look at the schedule, it's a little more favorable than everyone thinks. Denver is reeling with poor quarterback play. The Giants are a dumpster fire. Kansas City is slowing down. Cowboys don't have Ezekiel Elliott to finish the season. The Eagles are probably the only difficult team at this point of the schedule. It's certainly possible for the Raiders to run the table and win out. That run starts next week against Brock Osweiler and the struggling Broncos. Most definitely, that is winnable this time around. I'll see you guys next week for that game.
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