Raiders Week 5 Slay and Bomb

Finally, a victorious slay and bomb article for the first time since week 1. The Las Vegas Raiders once again emerged and took home their first win since week 1 of the 2023 season on Monday Night Football against the Green Bay Packers by a score of 17-13. It was ugly, it was by no means perfect, and by no means was it mistake-free. There were some great candidates for both sides of this slay and bomb article. But as Al Davis used to say, “Just Win Baby!”

Raiders Week 5 Slay and Bomb

The Raiders once again for the 5th time in 5 games this season failed to score 20 points in a game. The last time they scored 20 points in any game was in Week 17 of the 2022 season against the San Francisco 49ers. Since 2010, only 5 teams have scored under 20 points in each of their first 5 games. The only bright side to this is that the Raiders are the only team amongst those 5 teams to win a game, and they’ve won 2 of them.

The Raiders sit at 2-3 on the season, somehow being kept afloat by their surprisingly sturdy defense. For a team that invested most of its resources into their offense, it’s a bit concerning to see the offense floating in the wind like this without a direction. But it’s a relief at the same time to see the defense making plays for the first time in what feels like decades.

The positives to this win outweigh the negatives. Though there were a couple of bomb performances, the slay performances outweighed them heavily.

Slay

Robert Spillane

Robert Spillane has been a clutch-free agent signing from Pittsburgh. The Steelers organization always does a phenomenal job of spotting and developing great linebackers, and Spillane’s offseason acquisition by the Raiders has been incredibly rewarding. He’s been tough as nails, constantly near the ball, and under the bright lights, it finally paid off for him with a slay performance.

Big-time players make big-time plays in big games, and with arguably the season on the line, Spillane delivered. The offense couldn’t generate a lot on Monday night, but Spillane managed to snag the defense two interceptions to help set up the offense. One of them resulted in a field goal.

This was the first two-interception games of Spillane’s career. He also finished with nine total tackles and two passes defended. Spillane previously appeared in Week 2 of this list after he had a good performance in Buffalo. He’s a solid linebacker and a much-welcomed addition to the team.

Maxx Crosby

Once again, “The Condor” makes a slay performance appearance. What more needs to be said about Maxx Crosby that already hasn’t been said?

Where Crosby goes, the defense goes. When he’s on fire, the defense follows suit. He’s the leader of the team, especially on defense and he responded when the team needed him most.

I was not shy in my prediction that this game was practically the Raiders’ early-season version of the Super Bowl. They needed to win this game, or the season was essentially over because they would be looking down the barrel of a 1-4 start. Maxx Crosby decided on Monday night that this would not come to pass.

He was all over the field, running around like a man with his hair on fire. He was constantly in the backfield pressuring Packers quarterback Jordan Love all night. If he wasn’t the one to make the play, then his presence and constant relentlessness would enable somebody else to make the play. He required double and triple team blocks all night, and at times even that couldn’t stop him.

Crosby had one sack and five tackles, but even more telling than the stat line was the film footage. The Packers knew they wouldn’t be able to stop Crosby and it showed. “Mad Maxx” also had 4 tackles for loss, and practically lived in the Packers backfield all night. The Raiders’ defense this season is much improved compared to last season, and a lot of that is thanks to Maxx Crosby. He’s been here since day 1, but this might be the best we’ve ever seen him so far.

Amik Robertson

“Little Lock” as he refers to himself, showed up and made the game-winning interception. The smallest guy on the field with the loudest motor on the field won the game for the Raiders by leaping high into the Vegas night and coming down with the football. Even more impressive is when you find out that Amik is 5’8, and he was guarding 6’4 Christian Watson on a one-on-one jump ball.

Amik played a solid game, starting in place of injured rookie Jakorian Bennett. He had an impressive pass breakup earlier in the contest as well on another deep pass over the middle. He earned his spot in the slay category with the play he made in the endzone.

It sealed the Raiders defense’s 3rd interception of the game. The last time the Raiders defense came away with three interceptions was in 2021 at Denver. Amik might have played his way into more playing time with a solid performance on Monday Night Football.

Though Amik had a slay performance, I’ll use this spot to give a shout-out to the entire Raiders defense. They held the Packers to 13 points and forced three turnovers. They all deserve a round of applause for their great performance on Monday Night Football.

Bomb

Raiders Offensive Line

The rose is off the bloom so to speak for the Raiders offensive line. The front office and coaching staff decided to run it back with the same unit as last season and while they played well the first two weeks, the last three weeks they have taken a beating.

Last season, the offensive line’s numbers were bolstered by the fact that the Raiders had the NFL’s leading rusher and some Pro Football Focus website stats showcased them in a good light. However, if you watched the Raiders offensive line last season, you’d know they heavily struggled. Josh Jacobs broke more tackles behind the line of scrimmage in 2022 than anybody in football, despite leading the league in rushing.

It was on full display again in primetime on Monday night when the Raiders offensive line failed to give Jacobs consistent running lanes to run through. He made the most of what was possible with 69 yards and one touchdown. Jacobs even had his longest rush of the season after making Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander touch grass in the backfield with the sickest juke move of the 2023 season. But several times, he had to make several people miss in the backfield just to try and get back to the line of scrimmage.

Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was constantly harassed all evening as well. No quarterback does very well when they’re constantly under pressure, and Jimmy G is no exception. The Raiders’ offensive line allowed four sacks, and pressure from the Packers’ defense also forced Jimmy to throw an ill-advised interception to Packers safety Rudy Ford.

It was another bomb performance by the offensive line. They’re going to need to step it up to help the rest of the offense perform better. The war in the trenches is arguably the most important part of football because if you’re getting dominated at the line of scrimmage, it’s hard for your team to have a lot of success.

Josh McDaniels

Another week, another bomb performance by the Las Vegas Raiders head coach. It’s practically expected at this point. The Raiders victory on Monday might mask some of his failures, but McDaniels almost cost the Raiders another win this season. It would’ve been the third week in a row where the biggest reason the Raiders lost was their head coach.

Let’s start off with the playcalling. The Raiders got an interception by Robert Spillane, who then returned the football to the Packers eight-yard line. The Raiders proceeded to gain 0 yards on the drive and had to kick a field goal. They attempted a run up the middle, an end-around run with a receiver, and a screen pass on the drive without even attempting a single pass to the endzone.

The Raiders also had another drive with momentum stall out near midfield after attempting to do a running back pass involving Jacobs and Jimmy G that could’ve been intercepted if not for Jacobs holding onto the ball for a loss on the play. Both of these drives could’ve resulted in scores that would’ve made the final score not as close as it was. But alas, the Raiders failed once again at attempting to outsmart everybody.

Then, comes the legendary Josh McDaniels in-game decision-making. McDaniels has made himself known around the league as a tactical mastermind in regards to making in-game decisions. Nobody in the league makes questionable decisions quite like Josh McDaniels does, except for maybe Brandon Staley of the Los Angeles Chargers.

Near halftime with a chance to get the ball back with 1:45 left in the first half, Josh McDaniels elected not to call a timeout despite having two of them. This ended up resulting in the Raiders getting the ball back with only 55 seconds left, and the end result of the drive was a blocked 50+ yard field goal. With an additional 50 seconds on the clock, the Raiders could’ve driven much further down the field and allowed for an easier kick for Daniel Carlson. The Raiders could’ve gone up 13-3 at halftime, and they were getting the ball to start the second half as well.

The end-of-the-game decision is what almost cost the Raiders the game, again. Up 17-13 with a 4th and 1 at the Packers 34, McDaniels decided to send out kicker Daniel Carlson to attempt a field goal rather than go for a first down to end the game. If the kick was good, the Raiders would’ve gone up by seven, which the Packers could’ve tied up with a touchdown plus extra point. Or they could’ve gone for the 2-point conversion and the win against the notoriously bad Raiders red zone defense. Carlson ended up missing the field goal, giving the Packers the ball with great field position.

The funny part about this is that I can’t even be mad at the decision to attempt the field goal. The Raiders’ defense had played great all day and even made the final stop at the end to bail out McDaniels in the end. The only reason why I can justify kicking the field goal in this situation is because I didn’t trust Josh McDaniels to call the right play to get the Raiders the first down that would’ve ended the game for them. But going for the first down was absolutely the right play if your head coach isn’t Josh McDaniels.

If the Las Vegas Raiders had better coaching, they would be 4-1 and tied with the Kansas City Chiefs and their Swifties for first place in the AFC West. Right now, they’re 2-3 and sitting in 3rd place behind the Chargers and Swifties and a lot of that can be credited to Josh McDaniels.