Raiders humbled in blowout at Washington
ALAMEDA — The Oakland Raiders have prided themselves on always being competitive in two-plus seasons under coach Jack Del Rio.
That sure wasn’t the case on national television Sunday night when the Raiders delivered a performance more reminiscent of the struggles that preceded Del Rio’s arrival in 2015 than the play that had many labeling them a Super Bowl contender after two wins to open the season.
Oakland was thoroughly dismantled by Washington in a 2710 loss that wasn’t nearly as close as the final score indicated. The Raiders were outgained 472-128 for the fifthmost lopsided total in franchise history and looked lost on both sides of the ball from start to finish.
“We’re taking our lumps today,” Del Rio said. “We know it’s a miserable Monday when you don’t get it done on Sunday. We’re dealing with that. We’ll take it like men and move on. Clearly, it wasn’t anything close to what we know we’re capable of. We’ll go back to the drawing board, we’ll make our corrections and we’ll move on.”
Now the Raiders (2-1) must fix the problems that arose in Washington before they travel to Denver for a showdown with the Broncos (2-1) that will leave the loser in third place in the
ultra-competitive AFC West.
The offensive woes started early as a usually stout offensive line struggled to give Derek Carr his usual time to throw or clear holes for Marshawn Lynch and the running game.
The tone was set when Carr threw an interception on the second play from scrimmage on a deep pass to Amari Cooper and things only got worse from there for the offense.
Carr got sacked on back-to-back plays to end the next drive with a three-and-out, Lynch was stopped on a third-and-short the next drive, drops by Michael Crabtree and Cooper stalled the fourth possession as the Raiders didn’t get their initial first down until early in the second quarter.
Oakland managed to get into Washington territory on that drive only to have Carr throw his second interception of the game on a pass to Seth Roberts.
Little improved as the game went on as Oakland’s two scores came on drives of 18 and 8 yards following Washington fumbles. The Raiders even had to settle for a field goal on the second of those drives when Carr threw three straight incompletions after a first-and-goal from the 4.
Carr got sacked two more times, with the four sacks overall being his most since 2015 and the Raiders didn’t reach 100 yards of offense until a meaningless garbage time drive late in the game.
“They’ve certainly got good rush. We knew that coming in,” Del Rio said. “The pocket got collapsed a little more than we’re accustomed to. There were some opportunities to get the ball out and we didn’t take advantage of them.”