Death Star: Where Raiders’ season went to die
The Raiders bring down the curtain on Year 1 at the “Death Star” Saturday night, never expecting their new home to be the place their season went to die.
There are myriad reasons the Raiders will soon officially be eliminated from the playoff race. It could happen Saturday night when they host the Miami Dolphins, who are in the thick of the postseason picture at 9-5.
The Raiders, having lost four of of their past five, are 7-7 because they have been unable to defend their home turf at Allegiant Stadium, where they have a 2-5 record.
Owner Mark Davis determined in August he would be a no-show for home games out of respect to the season-ticket holders who can’t attend because of the coronavirus pandemic. What nobody knew at the time was the Raiders would join him. It was Davis who on Aug. 22 stood before his team and proclaimed, “Welcome to the Death Star, where opponents’ dreams come to die.”
The beginning was stirring, a 34-24 win against the New Orleans Saints on Monday night in Week 2. Other than that, the only good postgame vibes at their $2 billion home came from a 37-12 Week 12 win over the Denver Broncos when they had five takeaways.
Home is where Josh Allen led the Buffalo Bills to a 30-23 win that was more one-sided than the score indicated. It’s the place where Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers carved up the Raiders defense and the offense went stagnant during a week where the entire offensive line missed the week of practice for contact tracing.
It’s where Travis Kelce somehow got loose in the end zone to catch a
22-yard touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes with 28 seconds to play and prevent a season sweep of the Kansas City Chiefs, and was the location of a 44-27 clock-cleaning at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts that led to the firing of defensive coordinator Paul Guenther.
“A lot of things have happened to us in the last month or so. I’m not going to reiterate all those things,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said Thursday.
“We love our stadium ... yeah, we’d like to win in there. We’re playing a great team, one of the hottest teams in the league, and we’re going to have to pay our best game of the year to win.”
Away from Las Vegas, the Raiders handed the Chiefs their only loss of the season 40-32 at Arrowhead Stadium, taking a victory lap in chartered buses around the stadium. They beat the Cleveland Browns with frozen winds coming off Lake Erie. The Raiders won in Los Angeles when Isaiah Johnson broke up a pass on the last play of the game and in New Jersey on a miracle Derek Carr to Henry Ruggs III 46-yard touchdown pass with five seconds remaining.
Beating the Dolphins could allow the Raiders to relive those kinds of moments at their own venue and close their first year at Allegiant Stadium with a win.