Raiders Round-Up Week 10: Old School Football Still Wins Games

Man, this game was ugly. Not “cute-ugly” like an English Bulldog (or a newborn baby) but ugly-ugly, like Crocs (or a newborn baby).

 

The Raiders entered the season with Head Coach Josh McDaniels expecting QB Jimmy Garoppolo to throw his way to success and carry the team. Now that McDaniels is canned and Jimmy G is riding pine, Interim Head Coach Antonio Pierce implemented his new offensive strategy: “Run the damn ball.”

 

And “run the damn ball” they did. The Raiders had 32 rushes (27 by Josh Jacobs) for 148 yards. QB Aiden O’Connell had another serviceable game, completing 59% of his passes for 153 yards, throwing one “cute-ugly” touchdown and one “ugly-ugly” interception. 

 

While those numbers aren’t impressive, the fact is the Raiders were facing the best defense they’ve played all year (sorry, Pittsburgh). O’Connell was under constant pressure, taking 3 sacks, all in critical moments of the Raiders’ drive. Also, Jacobs had many rushes that went for zero or negative yards, and was stripped of the ball during a drive that could have iced the game for the Raiders. 

 

However, we stepped up when we needed to, and most importantly, we didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot. The Raiders had a scant 3 penalties for 25 yards, while the Jets killed themselves with 8 penalties for 83 yards, including multiple penalties in the red zone, and a touchdown-nullifying holding penalty that seemed to permanently swing momentum to the Raiders for that point forward. 

 

As is becoming the norm, the Raiders defense won the game for us. The Jets offense admittedly is horrible,  but when the game was on the line and it mattered the most, unsung hero Robert Spillane stepped up and made a huge interception as the Jets were nearing the end zone, forcing the Jets to burn all of their timeouts on the ensuing Raider drive, and get the ball back with very little time left. 

 

With what little time they had, the Jets managed to get themselves into Hail Mary territory. Zach Wilson, to his credit, was able to scramble away from DPOY candidate Maxx Crosby and chuck the ball into the endzone. Despite the fact that Garrett Wilson was able to get up to the ball, CB stud Nate Hobbs and FS Tre’von Moehrig got just enough of the ball to force an incompletion. 

 

As a team, the Raider identity has never been to pound the rock. We like to gunsling it and make big splashy plays. The Raiders were a pass-first team before pass-first was cool. But this team is not built to do that. This team is built to be an old-school bruising team, churning out tough yards and stopping opposing offenses from getting in the end zone, and it looks like that is what we have become. It’s effective. It doesn’t matter if it’s flashy, it doesn’t matter if it makes SportsCenter’s Top 10, all that matters is that we “Just Win Baby.”

 

Looking ahead at the Raiders schedule, it is very likely that they will finish 9-8. If/When that happens, I want everybody to remember where they heard it first.