The Cowboys were in Vegas Monday night for their prime time matchup with the Raiders. And though the two teams were only separated by one win in the standings, it became pretty apparent that there was a whole lot that separates them on the field.
The Raiders to off to a decent start. They stopped the Cowboys on their first two drives, the second with a turnover, and went up 3-0. By the end of the first quarter, the Raiders had a 6-3 lead. But things went bad after that for the home team. Real bad. Let’s get the good stuff out the way real quick before we move onto the finger pointing.
Ballers
None
Honorable mention
DE Maxx Crosby — The takeaway on the Cowboys second possession was Crosby getting into the backfield to make the strip sack. Tonka Hemingway recovered for the Raiders at the 15-yard-line and the Raiders got a field goal out of it.
TE Brock Bowers — Got somewhat back on track after a down week to catch seven passes for 72 yards.
Busters
HC Pete Carroll
Carroll was facing his former OC on the opposite sideline and got thoroughly outclassed. This Raiders team is completely lost. The offensive line is the biggest joke in the NFL, the receiving corps is one of the worst as well, and the defense can’t stop anything. And what about that rookie class? The only guy starting is Ashton Jeanty and the more we see him try to run behind that line, the more you realize why you don’t draft a running back sixth overall when you have a desperate need at offensive tackle. The result is the Raiders running Jeanty just six times.
The terrible personnel decisions Carroll made with this team get more and more glaring each and every week. Not properly fixing the offensive line in the offseason jumps out most. The only addition was Alex Cappa who was the worst pass blocking guard in the NFL last season and apparently so bad that instead of starting him, they move Jordan Meredith back to guard and gave former undrafted first year center Will Putnam his first career start.
This line looks worse than I can ever remember it looking. Some of that is lack of talent, some of that is coaching. By the by, the line is coached by Pete’s son Brennan Carroll.
Look, I realize the tank is on, and that’s probably the best course of action for this team. But if you’re wondering why this team looked so completely JV on Monday night, Carroll is where to direct your criticisms.
Stone Forsythe, Dylan Parham, Will Putnam, Jordan Meredith, DJ Glaze
The entire offensive line was hot garbage. The Raiders may have been hanging around this game in the first quarter, but the cracks were showing very early on. Their first drive ended with Geno Smith getting pressured and hit while Parham and Putnam were literally standing blocking air.
When the Raiders got the ball off the turnover at the Dallas 15-yard-line, Meredith immediately gave up a sack and they ended up settling for a field goal from farther back than where the started.
The next drive reached the 18-yard-line where Putnam gave up a QB hit and Jeanty was tackled for a four-yard loss. Two plays later Forsythe gave up the sack and the Raiders were lucky to get a field goal out of it. Putnam gave up a sack that stopped the next drive too.
The first play of the third quarter, nearly the entire line was a wreck. Putnam was blown up, Parham was beaten and then fell down, and Meredith and Glaze failed entirely at setting the edge. This allowed the Cowboys’ defensive line to chased down Ashton Jeanty on a toss play for a loss of four. And they went three-and-out.
By the time they got the ball back, the score was 31-9. But the Cowboys would get a couple more points on a safety. First it was Glaze being flagged for a false start that moved the ball to the one. Then on the next play Meredith chose a double team inside, letting the DE run free into the backfield to keep Jeanty from getting out the end zone. A sad, but appropriate ending. Well, technically there was still nearly 12 minutes left on the clock, but it was over.
CB Kyu Blu Kelly, S Isaiah Pola-Mao, S Lonnie Johnson Jr
Dak Prescott was dealing in this game. His top receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens were open all day long. The result was five straight scoring drives and four straight touchown drives.
The first TD drive started with Pickens finding a sizable soft spot in the zone between Kelly and Pola-Mao and Prescott finding him for a 19-yard gain. Next play it was Pickens open for a 15-yard catch with Pola-Mao out of position. And it ended with Pola-Mao giving up a wide open touchdown to Lamb.
Next TD drive saw Kelly give up a 14-yard catch on third and four that put the Cowboys in Vegas territory. A bit later, in third and ten from the 14, Pola-Mao gave up a nine-yard catch. And on fourth and one from the five, Johnson gave up the touchdown to tight end Jack Ferguson.
Third TD saw Kelly give up the catch to Pickens who left him in the dust and then Johnson missing the tackle as Pickens finished it off for a 37-yard score to make it 24-6. And all that was in the second quarter alone.
The final TD drive led out the third quarter. In third and four, Pickens took a pass on a crossing route and broke a tackle from Johnson to go 21 yards. The drive ended with Kelly giving up a 17-yard catch to Pickens to the three. Then giving up the touchdown two plays later.
QB Geno Smith
Smith was under a lot of pressure in this game. And he made a few decent throws despite that fact. But he also left a lot of plays on the field and even some of the plays in which he was pressured or sacked, he was at least partially responsible.
The first sack of the game came off the turnover with the ball at the Dallas 15-yard-line. Smith would have been avoided the sack had he quickly thrown the ball an open Tyler Lockett. But he either missed him or was looking for something better to open up. Two plays later, he had Tre Tucker open in the end zone and threw it behind him incomplete.
Down 17-6 in the second quarter, he had driven the Raiders to the Dallas 32-yard-line. Then he forced a pass into traffic to a well-covered Brock Bowers and it was tipped and intercepted. They scored off the turnover to go up 24-6.
There was one more chance to score before the half, and, again, Geno drove them down the field. Well, not until after he was nearly intercepted again on the first play because he threw into double coverage again. But after that he led them to the Dallas 25-yard-line. Then he missed a TD opportunity when Tyler Lockett broke open deep, but he threw it short, thinking he was going to come back for it. And then missed another TD opportunity by throwing off-target for Brock Bowers in the end zone. That’s three touchdowns an at least a field goal he missed in the last three possessions.
By the time he finally did get the Raiders in the end zone, the Cowboys were up 31-9. That’s was we call too little, too late.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Ballers & Busters for Raiders Week 11 loss to the Cowboys
