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Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 15 loss to Eagles
For everyone reading this, I commend you. It can be difficult to muster up a care to sift through the wreckage of another Raiders debacle. It's hard to fathom sometimes just how bad this team in. But just when you think it can't get worse, it does.
Technically, though, it has been this bad before this season. The Raiders lost 31-0 in Philadelphia. Which is the exact score they had in Kansas City in Week seven. As it happens, that loss to the Chiefs began their eight-game losing streak.
In this one, the Raiders offense put up just 75 yards while the defense could stop just about nothing. The game was over by the third quarter when they went down 24-0. And the Eagles put their foot on the Raiders' necks on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Ok, let's do this again.
Ballers
None
Seriously, this is really something. No Ballers every week like this is getting cray-zee. It's not supposed to be a common occurrence and yet this season it's become the norm. There aren't even any Honorable Mention this week.
Busters
DC Patrick Graham
What has happened to this defense? Every week we watch opposing teams just march down the field all day, taking what they want, eating up clock, and scoring seemingly at will. The defensive line is getting pushed around and it always looks like someone is out of position. But if it happens all the time, you gotta start wondering if maybe it's play calls that are the problem?
There's always these plays where very good players are getting wide open with room to catch the ball and/or room to run. Dallas Goedert was the big recipient in this one. He has never had it so easy. And the only score the Eagles had that wasn't a touchdown was not because the Raiders made a big stop. It's simply because Goedert dropped a wide open pass in the end zone. He still managed to score two other touchdowns, including one where he could have literally walked in, but opted to high-step in instead.
I mean, Greg Olson has an excuse. Many, actually. But what's Graham's excuse?
LB Elandon Roberts
This was tough, because Roberts had good stats, including three tackles for loss. But games aren't played in the stat column. And they often aren't won or lost there either. For instance, one of his tackles for loss came on the Eagles' opening drive. But he also was out of position on a six-yard catch, and gave up the touchdown on a shovel pass up the middle to Goedert.
Roberts was among those who gave up the second TD on a two-yard run. And the third TD drive began with Roberts give up a wide open 32-yard catch to Goedert. Their final touchdown drive began with Roberts missing a tackle on a 17-yard run.
CB Darien Porter, S Jeremy Chinn
The Eagles second scoring drive began with Porter giving up a 44-yard catch. A few plays later, in third and six, he was flagged for pass interference that put them in first and goal at the five. The only thing that kept them from scoring a touchdown was Goedert dropping a TD pass.
You could say the game was over in the third quarter. The Eagles went on a long drive with them converting on third and eight by Porter giving up a 14-yard catch. Then on third and 12, Chinn was late to come up and Porter missed the tackle on a 13-yard scramble. And on first and goal from the four, Porter was among those who were caught up in the wash as Goedert sashayed into the end zone.
The final scoring drive saw Porter miss a tackle on an 11-yard run and Chinn give up a 27-yard touchdown in which it looked like Porter might be able to come help out, but ended up just getting a front row seat for AJ Brown's TD catch.
G Caleb Rogers, RT DJ Glaze
The entire line took turns being terrible in this game. But these two had especially bad days. The only drive the Raiders had in the game that looked for a moment like it might go somewhere was their first one. But ultimately they would go for it on fourth and six and DJ Glaze got pushed into the backfield to give up pressure and a batted pass for the turnover on downs.
The next couple drive were three-and-outs. The second of those ended with Rogers getting eaten up to give up the sack.
Late in the second quarter, with the Eagles already up 17-0, the Raiders took over with two minutes to try and get on the board before the half. On the third play, Glaze gave up a QB hit leading to an incompletion. Two plays later, Rogers gave up a QB hit for a short completion. And the drive ended two plays later.
The Raiders would have two more drives before the game was 31-0. The first ended in an interception. The second ended with Glaze giving up the sack.
QB Kenny Pickett
He just seemed to ineffective. No real flashes of anything you could build upon to win a game, let alone sustain a long scoring drive. He completed just 15 passes for 64 yards in the game with one interception and he was sacked four times. One of those I would put on him for trying to run laterally when he still had a pocket. He didn't have a single pass completion over ten yards. Not even his interception.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 15 loss to Eagles
