5 things we saw from the Raiders in week 7

The Raiders beat the Jaguars in Jacksonville in convincing fashion on Sunday. This was the sloppiest game ever played. Referee Jeff Tripplett and his crew may need Tommy John surgery after this flag fest. Latavius Murray made his return from turf toe. The defense was better and I finally saw what I’ve been waiting for since a certain athletic punter was signed as Shane Lechler’s replacement. More on that in a bit but in the meantime here are 5 things we saw in the game.

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5 – There were a TON of penalties:

There were 24 accepted penalties for 229 yards and 3 ejections in this game. A very sloppy performance to say the least. Of course, it only stands to reason with Jeff Tripplette and crew who are notorious for being quick to drop the laundry. Of course the players are the ones who committed the penalties, but that crew doesn’t have “let them play” in their mentality. This game had the most penalties this year. I would even go as far as to say that the Raiders actually played down to the Jaguars level in that respect. The refs have always loved to penalize the Raiders but the Jags actually had more than the Raiders.

4 – The Raiders still lack a killer instinct:

Take a good look at the above photo. He is the main reason for this problem. His offense went into halftime rolling with the momentum on a 20-6 lead. As expected, they went to sleep in the second half yet again. It was obvious that the game plan was to pound the Jags defense into submission with the run game, but that didn’t really take full effect. It did wear on them a bit late in the 4th quarter as the Raiders were able to finally put the game away with a very late TD. I would argue that the massive amounts of costly penalties and pure frustration on the part of the Jags had as much, if not more to do with it.

It is the same thing week after week. Just watch Twitter during Raider games and you will see. This needs to change if the Raiders are going to make any kind of run at the playoffs. You cannot go conservative just because you get a 2 possession lead. We see big leads blown and wins become losses every week. Get it together, Musgrave; before it is too late. Take that kill shot, even against a so called “lesser team” like the Jags.

3 – Marquette King can run:

Ask my fellow Cover32 writer, Amy Contizano: I’ve been dying to see Marquette King try a fake punt. Today, I got to see it and it was grand. Despite the fact that it was on a busted punt rather than a planned fake, it was still awesome. There is a good reason why I’ve wanted to see this. I followed Marquette King since he was signed and placed on injured reserve. I watched how he works out and I knew that he has speed. I’ve always maintained that he would be dangerous as a runner if given the chance.

This play was wide open, but if you watch it closely, he did outrun at least 2 Jacksonville defenders on the edge. I’d be willing to bet that had he made a cut to the inside he could have run farther. I do concede the fact that he is a punter and it is not his job to take big hits. He did his job in saving the Raiders from what could have been a disastrous play by converting the 4th and 24. Hopefully, this run got the attention of the coaching staff and they will be more inclined to try a fake punt for real and when the game is on the line. Let’s just hope that it is a far more manageable distance.

2 – The running back committee was whole again:

The return of Latavius Murray was evident in this game. Nobody ran for 100 yards individually, but as a group, the committee put up 144 yards. Add Marquette King and his 27 yard scamper to the committee. As I stated earlier, the Raiders game plan appeared to be pounding the Jags into submission with the running game. They ran 34 times and threw 37 which was pretty balanced, but it just seemed to me like they were using the run to set up the pass. It worked pretty well in the first half; not so much in the second half. This brings me to my next observation:

1 – No adjustments were made again:

Here we go with the adjustments again. Any adjustments were pretty much negated by the very sloppy play but if that factor had not been present, we could have been looking at a different outcome to this game. It would be too bad having to report that Jack Del Rio and his staff were out coached by Gus Bradley and company. They were, but the win and pure ineptitude of the Jaguars kind of overshadowed that. The Raiders managed only 31 yards in the 3rd quarter. The Jags defense adapted to the running game. They basically shut the Raiders down, but their offense was not able to capitalize on it.

Do that same thing against a better team and well; we learned how that ends from last week. It is hard to be critical of anything when the team gets a 17 point win on the road, even if it was against the Jags. What makes criticism even harder is the fact that they are 4-0 on the road; 5-2 on the season and alone in first place in the division. They better get this figured out and very soon. I hate to sound like a broken record, but facts are facts.

Bonus – The defense came to play:

I don’t normally do a bonus observation but I have been very critical of the Raiders defense, so it is only fair to praise them when they play well. You could argue that the Jags ineptitude on offense was the reason for the loss, but I am not in that crowd. This defense held them out of the endzone until the 4:12 mark of the 4th quarter. They also intercepted 2 passes, including the game clincher and forced 2 fumbles; recovering one of them. They also held the Jags running game in check with the exception of one run of 47 yards by Chris Ivory, which was nearly half of the Jags rushing yards. It was a refreshing change to see them turn it up when the offense went to sleep.

The Raiders will be staying in Florida for their preparation to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There is still much to improve on. The Bucs are not the Jags. They are a pretty good team with plenty of weapons on offense. If the Raiders hope to keep their unbeaten road streak alive and stay ahead of their division foes, they need to build on this win. They need to develop that kill shot on offense and continue to gel as a defense.

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