Silver And Black Pride
The Raiders defeated the Patriots 20-13 on Sunday, and with that win come some crucial stats that can be looked into for not only recapping how well the Raiders truly did but also some area’s of weakness or strengths that may be unexpected going forward into the rest of the NFL season.
Geno Smith tossed 362 yards, a touchdown, and an interception in week one while also being sacked four times and completing, to no surprise, 71% of his attempts. Smith’s average outdoor stat line is a 1.5:1 TD/INT ratio so his performance vs the Patriots in that category is about expected, though he is above average in yards. The biggest aspect for the Raiders is how often Smith and Chip Kelly got the ball targeted at different receivers. Jakobi Meyers led the team with 10 targets and posted 8 receptions for 97 yards with a drop as well. Meyers consistently won his reps and found soft spots in zone drops that Geno was able to attack. Brock Bowers led the team with 103 yards and five receptions while also logging eight targets and 50 yards after the catch. Michael Mayer recorded 4 targets, and 5 receptions. Rookie receivers Dont’e Thornton (4 targets) and Jack Bech (1 target) got involved with big plays as well. Ashton Jeanty logged another 3 targets and Alex Bachman had one before half. It’s clear the Raiders value their offensive personnel highly, they stuck to their game plan of targeting Meyers and Bowers often with supplemental efforts to Thornton, Tucker, and Mayer throughout the game. Tre Tucker turned in a big performance as did the others indicating the Raiders are likely to stick to that approach going forward.
The Raiders allowed 4 sacks vs the Patriots with 2.5 coming from Harold Landy who was among the worst in the NFL last season in win rate. Landry consistently won through the Patriots exploration of stunts and twists attacking Jordan Meredith and Jackson Powers-Johnson most often. The struggles were clear at times, they seemed to lack communication and overall Powers-Johnson didn’t look fully comfortable playing right guard, which does make sense given he’s played the position just 29 times in a regular season game coming into this week while having not started there since 2022 at the University of Oregon. Meredith did look comfortable at center and while he struggled in the first half noticing blitz assignments and making changes to the protections, changes were made at halftime and the Raiders saw success picking up on the Patriots defensive front. Overall New England did record 21 pressures (4 by former Raiders LB Robert Spillane and 2 from K’Lavon Chaisson) largely in part to their ability to scheme up free looks and creative blitz designs that confused and attacked the Raiders up front. Geno Smith performed well despite being pressured at a high rate but the Raiders are going to need to fix their communication up...
