Raiders’ defense deteriorates again to drop winnable game against Dolphins
Mack Hollins was left so wide open along the sidelines that it didn’t matter that quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick’s head was twisted in the wrong direction, away from the receiver.
The 41-yard Dolphins’ completion, which turned into a 56-yard gain because of a facemask penalty on the Raiders’ Arden
Key, will go down as one of the greatest grand finales in the history of “Fitzmagic.” Fitzpatrick pulled off a near-impossible trick in making the play and getting his team into field goal range to lead Miami to a 26-25 victory in Las Vegas.
But the Raiders’ defense, as it’s done all season, made for quite the stagehand in presenting its own team’s collapse.
“Unfortunately they made a desperation play and the penalty was horrific,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said.
The Raiders’ postseason hopes officially went up in smoke with the loss to the Dolphins, which was clinched with a 44yard field goal from Jason Sanders a few seconds after Fitzpatrick’s successful heave. It’s a fitting flameout considering defensive incompetence has been the biggest factor in holding the Raiders back all season, including in a slump that’s now seen them lose five of six games and fall to 7-8 on the year.
Las Vegas hoped a young defense would take the next step and progress to an at least serviceable level next to an efficient, playoffready offense this season. The improvement never happened.
Despite showing occasional flashes of capability, the Raiders’ defense has continually self-immolated to the point where it can fairly be considered the worst in the NFL. The loss to the Dolphins encapsulated the Raiders’ season-long defensive experience.
“It’s just about execution as a total defense,” linebacker Raekwon Mcmillan said. “We can’t put ourselves in that situation. We just have to finish strong.”
Knowing the defensive weakness, and having been burned by its endgame blunders in the same building a month ago against the Chiefs, Gruden tried his best to work around it. He instructed the Raiders not to score even when they got a first-and-goal at the
8-yard line with 1:55 remaining and trailing by a point.
Josh Jacobs obeyed, surrendering short of the end zone on first- and second-down before quarterback Derek Carr kneeled on third-down. That set up a 22-yard field goal from Daniel Carlson, which he knocked through to improve to 4-for-4 on the night and put the Raiders ahead 25-23 with 19 seconds remaining.
Their win probability eclipsed 90% according to multiple different statistical models, but it wasn’t enough. Fitzpatrick’s pass, amid Key’s facemask, into a blown zone coverage by Raiders cornerback Isaiah Johnson happened on the next play.
Gruden faced criticism after the game for not scoring the touchdown and attempting a 2-point conversion in hopes that Miami would have to go the length of the field just to tie the game and force overtime. But he stuck by his decision, as did the rest of the team.
“You can think of a million different scenarios with the way we could have handled that and I think we did it absolutely perfect,” Carr said. “I don’t regret it. You take all their timeouts away. You take all the time off the clock, as much as you can. You expect to win that game.”
Carr can’t possibly be shocked the Raiders lost, though, not with the disappearing acts that have become commonplace with the defense. Saturday’s actually started a few minutes before the fatal final sequence.
It started as soon as Fitzpatrick relieved rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa near the start of the fourth quarter.
The Raiders had held the Dolphins to 13 points before the substitution, but it became clear the success had more to do with Tagovailoa’s timidity than any defensive breakthrough. Fitzpatrick took the Dolphins 84 yards on 13 plays in his first drive before Sanders kicked a field goal to tie the game at 16.
Miami scored a touchdown on three plays in his second drive at the helm to go up 23-22. He hit running back Myles Gaskin in the flat and the former seventhround pick broke a Mcmillan tackle and evaded Cory Littleton en route to a 59-yard touchdown with 2:55 to play.
Fitzpatrick completed 9 of 13 pass attempts in his three drives for 182 yards and a touchdown. Tagovailoa managed only 94 yards and a touchdown on 17-for-22 passing.
“It’s easy to look at the last play but I thought the defense did a lot of good things this game,” tight end Darren Waller said. “I was proud of the way that they played. The ending wasn’t what we wanted.”