Raiders’ second-half mistakes bite hard in home loss to Bills
The Raiders’ 2-0 start was a distant memory Sunday following a 30-23 home loss to the Buffalo Bills.
Unable to capitalize on scoring opportunities or generate any sort of pass rush or defensive consistency, the Raiders saw a competitive game slip away in a onesided second half against a Buffalo team that improved to 4-0.
Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen completed 24 of 34 passes for 288 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Bills look like a worthy challenger to New England’s run of 11 straight division titles in the AFC East.
As for the AFC West, the Raiders (22) looked light years from being able to compete with the Kansas City Chiefs, who happen to be next week’s opponent at Arrowhead Stadium.
Allen threw touchdown passes of 26 yards to Gabriel Davis and 11 yards to Cole Beasley. He also scored on a 1-yard sneak. Running back Devin Singletary tacked on a 2-yard touchdown run and Tyler Bass converted a 34-yard field goal.
For the Raiders, Derek Carr had a
3-yard touchdown pass to Jason Witten, a cosmetic 7-yard pass to Nelson Agholor with 1:29 left, and Daniel Carlson had field goals of 54, 39 and 25 yards. The second touchdown pass made Carr the all-time franchise leader in touchdown passes with 151, passing Ken Stabler. The last drive covered 80 yards in eight plays, but all that was left was for Buffalo to recover the onside kick to end the game, which it did.
Carr completed 32 of 44 passes for 311 yards as the Raiders had 383 yards of
offense, but left with an empty feeling.
“I’m sick of losing,” Carr said. “I’m sick of working as hard as I do and we do and losing. It sucks. Enough is enough.”
Highs, lows and all you need to know from the Raiders’ Week 4 game against Buffalo:
The Gru review: How did coach Jon Gruden sum up the Raiders’ loss and the first quarter of the season?
“If anyone has played a tougher schedule than us, tell me who has?” Gruden said. “We played Monday night against the Saints, cross country for a short week against the Patriots and the Buffalo Bills are undefeated and playoff team. We’re not going to get any sympathy next week either going to Arrowhead.
“This is a great opportunity for us to continue to get better and look at our young players. We’ve been in all these games, we’ve won two, we’ve lost two and the first quarter is in the books.”
The two that got away: An offense that is often criticized for being unwilling to attack downfield got only three points out of two huge opportunities.
On the first, Carr hit Nelson Agholor with a perfect 49-yard
rainbow that traveled a good 55 yards in the air for an apparent touchdown to cut Buffalo’s lead to 14-10. Except tight end Foster Moreau was whistled for not lining up properly. The illegal formation call negated the touchdown and the Raiders settled for Carlson’s 25-yard field goal.
Then in the third quarter, having crept within 17-16, having actually forced a Bills punt, Carr had Zay Jones open on a second-night play down the right sideline. It was a fraction too long. Carr was sacked on the next play, the Raiders punted, Andre Roberts returned it 38 yards and the
Bills went on for a short-field drive and the 1-yard sneak by Allen.
Carr said he saw nothing amiss when he checked Moreau’s alignment before the ball was snapped. Gruden didn’t understand it, either.
“Zay, it was fingertips. It was that close,” Carr said.
Keeping Jacobs in check: Running back Josh Jacobs had 48 yards on 15 carries and was stuffed on key plays. The Raiders were unable to stick with the run after falling behind in the fourth quarter.
“They were flying in all the gaps, shooting the holes, early on they made our line react fast,” Jacobs said. “We had a few injuries, but it’s just a credit to their defense.”
Waller’s mistake: Reintroduced to the offense after being blanketed in New England, Darren Waller caught nine passes for 88 yards but lost a fumble in the third quarter with the Raiders on the move and trailing 23-16.
Cornerback Josh Norman made the strip and recovery – a great play – and Waller accepted responsibility for the mistake.
The Bills, as good teams do, struck immediately. Allen hit Stefon Diggs (six receptions, 115 yards) for a 49-yard strike that set up a 2-yard run by Singletary to make it 30-16 with 11:17 left.
“I feel my fumble was the turning point,” Waller said. “Stefon Diggs had the deep play the next play after. That was a huge swing right there. That’s where it started to get out of our control.”