Not many Raiders qualify for a slay, but a lot of Raiders bombed this week. The Raiders went into Buffalo and got beaten handily 38-10, as most people predicted. For this week’s slay or bomb, not many players showed up and slayed. But this was to be expected as Buffalo is in the top tier of teams. The Raiders didn’t exactly impress many people and showed they aren’t quite there yet.
Raiders Week 2 Slay or Bomb
There were some massive concerns with this team that were showcased today. The Raiders started all right, but an early interception killed all momentum. From then on, it was all downhill from there. It makes this slay or bomb rather difficult. When you lose 38-10, it’s hard to find the positives. However, there were some players who certainly deserve a round of applause for their performance in tough circumstances.
Prayers out to Davantae Adams; a hit he took near the end of the game landed him in concussion protocol. With the Raiders’ number two receiver, Jakobi Myers, missing this week with a concussion, I hope it’s not going to become an ongoing trend with this team.
Slay:
Raiders WR Davantae Adams (17) – Adrian Kraus/AP Photo
Davantae Adams
Davantae Adams absolutely went out and slayed out there in Buffalo. It didn’t matter how the Bills tried to cover him. There could’ve been two or three defenders on him, and Adams showcased why he is still the best wide receiver in the entire NFL.
Adams seems to have built a connection with quarterback Jimmy Garroppolo. Jimmy G seems to have a tendency to go with his first option on plays, and more often than not, that option is to get the ball to Adams. You always want to get the ball in the hands of your best playmakers, and the Raiders seem to make sure Adams gets the ball more than anybody.
Adams finished this game with six catches for 84 yards and one touchdown, his first of the 2023 season. However, the stats don’t tell the whole tale. It certainly felt like more throughout the entire game. Watching this game, it felt like an overwhelming number of passes were targeted for Adams.
Adams is the best wide receiver in the league and deserves to get the ball as much as possible, even if the majority of the passes are short passes that don’t necessarily stretch the field the way that he’s previously been used to with Aaron Rodgers and Derek Carr. The only downside to this game was the ridiculously unneeded hit he took with the team down 38-10. Hopefully, Adams doesn’t miss any time and makes a full recovery; concussions are serious business, as we all know.
Robert Spillane
Spillane once again put together a solid game. Linebacker was a position of concern coming into this season. However, Spillane has done very well. He earned the defensive captaincy and has showcased himself as a solid tackling linebacker.
Spillane finished the game with 14 tackles, nine solo tackles, and five assists. He also contributed a sack. He’s been a great free-agent addition to the team and has been a leader. The rest of the defense, unfortunately, didn’t contribute too much, but Spillane had a solid game. He showcased a lot of effort even late in the game after the Raiders had waived the white flag. The only knock on his performance is that Spillane did miss a few tackles in the run game. Given how rough the game was for everybody on the team, he still qualifies as a slay.
Pass Blocking
The Raiders have done an absolutely commendable job in their pass blocking. Jimmy G has more time to throw than any quarterback in the league. They have done a phenomenal job of keeping their quarterback clean through two games thus far and deserve to be commended.
There were times when the offensive line bent a little bit at the point of attack, but not enough to allow a sack yet on the season. It is yet to be determined just how long the streak will last.
Against Ed Oliver and Greg Rousseau, this was absolutely a tough matchup. The Raiders offensive line managed to do a great job in preventing either man from getting to Jimmy G.
Bombs
Raiders RB Josh Jacobs (28) – Adrian Kraus/AP Photo
Josh Jacobs/Run Blocking
What in the world has happened to the 2022 leading rusher? This section also can apply to the offensive line in regards to run blocking. Looking at the game film, the offensive line was absolutely dominated. In the first play of the game, Ed Oliver threw the Raiders’ right guard right into Jacobs just as he got the handoff. That play set the tone for the rest of the game.
The Raiders pass blocking has been outstanding, with only five total pressures allowed all season. But the run blocking has been atrocious. Jacobs hasn’t had any holes to run through at all. He isn’t helping matters, though, because he isn’t running hard through any holes that have been opened up.
Jacobs finished the game with -2 yards rushing. This is the first time since the NFL/AFL merger in 1970 that the leading rusher from the previous season was held to negative rushing yards in a game in the next season.
Jacobs has appeared a step too slow this season in the first two weeks. He didn’t show up for training camp, or play in a single preseason game. He held out, hoping for a new deal and to avoid the franchise tag, and signed a 1-year deal with the team just a couple of weeks before the season.
At least from the outside looking in, it isn’t looking good for Jacobs. He wants a new, long-term contract after this season, but if he isn’t producing, he isn’t going to get that contract. He looks like he needs a few weeks to get going, but the Raiders need him to get going now.
Raiders Defense
There were too many performances to just choose one player and break it down. The entire Raiders defense (minus Robert Spillane) earned this listing. I had a feeling it was going to be a rough one for the Raiders defense. Josh Allen is one of the top 3 quarterbacks in all of football, and despite his tendency to turn over the football, he was going up against a defense that has heavily struggled to force turnovers for about 2 decades at this point.
The entire defense struggled. The defensive line got absolutely no pressure on Allen all day. Maxx Crosby was neutralized all day. Facing double teams all day, Crosby wasn’t able to get to Allen at all. The interior presence was completely non-existent. The Raiders entire defensive line spent the entire game being moved backward at the point of attack.
The secondary was picked apart with precision and without mercy. Rookie cornerback Jaqorian Bennett was targetted quite heavily by Allen all game long and heavily struggled.
One of the massive concerns through the first two games has been the play of safety Tre’von Moehrig. Moehrig was very good in his rookie season in 2021. He had a rough second season last year in his first year in Patrick Graham’s system. This season, Mohrig has unfortunately looked lethargic at times in coverage. He hasn’t been a slay candidate but has been a bomb candidate for both games.
Both Bennett and Mohrig might just be victims of slow starts. Both had good training camps, but when the games started counting, both began struggling unexpectedly. Last week in Denver and now this week in Buffalo, both guys were tested multiple times by Russell Wilson and Josh Allen and didn’t rise up to the challenge.
Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo (10) – Matt Durisko/AP Photo
Jimmy Garoppolo
The warm welcome might have turned icy already. Jimmy G didn’t exactly help quash any doubters with a not-so-good performance in Buffalo. Yes, he completed quite a few passes. He turned in a 16/24 performance for only 185 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. The two interceptions weren’t exactly pretty either; Ed Oliver ran right through a screen pass and grabbed Jimmy who then still tried to get the pass off only to watch it get tipped and fall into the arms of a defender. The second, he slightly overthrew a short check down to Josh Jacobs, who had it snatched off his face mask by Matt Milano.
The first interception was especially back-breaking for the Raiders because they had a chance to go up by two possessions on the Bills. Instead, they handed the Bills a free possession deep inside their own territory which led to Buffalo snatching the momentum for the remainder of the game.
If the Raiders are going to win going forward, they can’t afford to have Jimmy making mistakes. For the season, has thrown three touchdowns and three interceptions. If this team is going to be elevated into a playoff position, Jimmy is going to have to step it up. He doesn’t have to be a downfield gunslinger, but the Raiders can’t afford to have game-breaking turnovers.
In San Francisco, Jimmy had the benefit of the best defense in the league to help him in case he had a rough game. In Las Vegas, unfortunately, he doesn’t have that. He doesn’t have to go out and be the biggest reason why the Raiders win games, but he can’t be one of the reasons why they lose them.
The Raiders will have a great chance to bounce back in their next game. Next week, they have their home opener under the lights of Sunday Night Football, where they will take on the Pittsburgh Steelers. The rivalry will once again be renewed, and hopefully, there will be more players who qualify for a slay next Sunday.
