Week 11: Venganza en Mexico! - RAIDERS vs. New England Patriots 1st Half Open Thread and Discussion

The game we've all waited for. Bienvenidos! This is the 1st half open thread and discussion of the Raiders-Patriots Week 11 matchup in Mexico City. Whether in English or en Espanol, leave a comment below and share your thoughts on the game.

Q2

NE 17 OAK 0

That last Raiders drive hurt. They could've cut the deficit to just a touchdown. Instead, they're down 17-0 at the half against the defending Super Bowl champions. What was Seth Roberts thinking loosening that handle on that football? Just get down. You have a first down. The Raiders can run another play with all three of their timeouts. Instead, it results in a fumble and the Raiders come up empty handed. That is the story in the first half. The one thing that Oakland had going was the running game. Marshawn Lynch had a couple of nice runs. Jalen Richard picked up chunks to spare Beast Mode. That kept the Raiders in this game. But, the drops and the turnovers are killing them. It's more of the Raiders stalling their own drives rather than the Pats' defense in the first half. With those errors, Tom Brady and the offense made it look easy on the Raiders defense. Brady has so many weapons to throw to and the matchups are just absolutely bad. Even worse, the Patriots deferred on the coin toss and will get the ball.  The defense has to get stops because if the Patriots score again, it'll be hard for the Raiders to depend on the arm of Derek Carr with the drops from the receivers. At this point, hope for the best and expect the worse. The 2nd half will open up shortly.

Q1

NE 7 OAK 0

The silver lining is Khalil Mack getting a sack on Tom Brady. Hopefully, that creates momentum for the Raiders. But, in that first quarter, you can tell the difference between these two teams. The Raiders started off on the right foot running the ball with Lynch and the drive stalled with Seth Roberts dropping a pass. On the Patriots' first drive, you can tell they were looking for the kill early on in the game. They used the high altitude to their advantage to run no huddle and gash out the Raiders' defense early on and they capped it off on an easy score. The Raiders gotta build any momentum on any side of the ball. This quarter shows some of that rust on the bye week.