Team Grades: Dismal Raiders Effort Leads To Bengals Blowout in Week 1
By Abraham Gutierrez
It was a sight all too familiar to Raider Nation, as another season of NFL football kicked off with lots of excitement, but quickly fizzled with a dismal performance by the Oakland Raiders. The end result was a 20-point drumming at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals, 33-13, who went into the Black Hole and dominated in every facet of the game.
Offense: F
A hand injury to starting quarterback Derek Carr put the Raiders behind the 8-ball right out of the gate. How bad was the Raiders offense in the opener? How about laying a goose egg for the first three quarters of the ballgame, as they simply couldn’t get anything going with Carr in the locker room and Matt McGloin running the offense.
And while the score indicates that Oakland did register a pair of touchdowns, they both came in garbage time, as the Bengals had already put the game out of reach with 33 unanswered points. The Raiders finished with 16 first downs to the Bengals’ 22, where crushed in the category of total yards, 396 to 246, the time of possession battle also went to the visitors, 32:32 to 27:28, and Oakland managed to scrape a pitiful 63 rushing yards on the ground.
Rookie wide receiver Amari Cooper registered 5 grabs for 47 yards, while former 49ers wideout, Michael Crabtree was second in the team with 37 yards on a handful of receptions. Also worth noting is Marcel Reece’s efforts, as the 3-time Pro Bowl fullback snatched three grabs for a total of 26 yards and was responsible for Oakland’s only two touchdowns of the afternoon.
Quarterback: D-
As stated above, Carr exited the game in the second quarter after suffering a hand injury while attempting a stiff-arm on Adam “Pacman” Jones near the Raiders’ sidelines. At the time of the injury, Oakland trailed 10-0 with less than six minutes to go before the half, but it would all go downhill from there. All indications are that Carr’s x-rays were negative, which is a huge sigh of relief for Raider Nation, but his status is up in the air.
“I don’t know anything about that right now,” Del Rio said when asked about Carr’s potential return. “I’m not sure. The x-rays were negative.”
After taking over at signal-caller, McGloin finished with 142 yards on 23-for-31, a pair of touchdowns and an interception. Carr, meanwhile, connected on 7 of his 12 pass attempts for 61 yards.
Defense: F
So much was made about the Oakland Raiders defense heading into the opener that perhaps expectations were unfairly high for this bunch. It didn’t take long for Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton to pick Ken Norton’s defense apart, as it was clear from the opening snap this would be a long day for the Raiders on that side of the rock.
Oakland’s lackluster efforts against the pass made Andy Dalton seem like Aaron Rodgers out there, as he connected on 74 percent of his passes, going 25 of 34 for 269 yards and 2 touchdowns for a cool quarterback rating of 115.9. But pass defense wasn’t Oakland’s only deficiency in this one, as they also allowed 127 rushing yards, which equals out to 4.1 yards per carry. Jeremy Hill registered 63 yards on 19 carries and two scores, while Giovani Bernard matched his production with just 8 rushes.
Coaching: D
It's clear that the Raiders were nowhere near as prepared as they should've been in order to compete against a playoff-caliber squad like the Bengals in Week 1. Oakland has a lot of work to do going forward, especially on the defensive side of the football. There were a total of four injured Raiders in this one, including perennial Pro Bowler Charles Woodson (wrist) and former second-round pick, Nate Allen (knee). During his post-game presser, the first-year Raiders head coach took the blame for his team coming out flat, and rightly so.
“Not the kind of performance we expected to have out there today,” said first-year Raiders coach Jack Del Rio during his post-game press conference. “I thought our fans were excited about the opening of the season, as we were, and it’s a very disappointing, embarrassing effort. I take full responsibility, but we’ll get it turned around and corrected.”
Next for Jack Del Rio and the (0-1) Oakland Raiders is another home game, as the (0-1) Baltimore Ravens pay a visit to the Black Hole in Week 2. John Harbaugh’s bunch is coming off a heartbreaking 19-13 defeat at the hands of the Denver Broncos in their season opener.
Abe Gutierrez's passion led him to ditch law school journey in order to launch his own publishing company. His expertise make him a valued addition to Examiner.com, AXS.com and the CBS-Sports family. Some of his work can be found on CBS-Miami (Dolphins), CBS-LosAngeles (Chargers) and CBS-TampaBay (Buccaneers), AXS.com, Examiner.com. and other online publications.
