Silver And Black Pride
For a head coach who preaches being fundamentally sound, Pete Carroll’s Las Vegas Raiders were fundamentally bad in a 41-24 shellacking at the hands of the Washington Commanders this past Sunday.
Unable to tackle and block (along with a myriad of other things), the Silver & Black were outclassed in all three phases of the game — offense, defense, and special teams — in an Eastern time zone whooping that had shades of prior regime incompetence all over it.
“No. If I had known that, I would have done something,” Carroll said in the postgame press conference when asked if he expected this kind of lopsided defeat in Week 3. “So I’m taking this one, and I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t see it coming.”
Even with Washington showcasing sloppy football, Las Vegas couldn’t take advantage. After getting torched by Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota on a 22-yard run, defensive tackle Thomas Booker made a great hustle play to run him down and force the fumble (which was recovered by cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly), the Raiders offense couldn’t do anything and punted the ball away.
Then, on back-to-back series, Raiders opportunities and gaffes were highlighted again. First, was a ball that bounced off Washington wide receiver Deebo Samuel’s chest and into the eager hands of Raiders safety Isaiah Pola-Mao only for the would-be interception hitting the ground. Then, a few plays later, Pola-Mao getting flagged for a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty on a hit where Samuel was a runner with the football. But Las Vegas defense made a stand and Washington missed a gimmie 35-yard field goal
The Raiders offense faltered and punted the ball away resulting in an electric return from Commanders speedster Jaylin Lane that saw Las Vegas tight end Michael Mayer suffer a concussion on the hit to Lane.
Even when the Raiders knotted the game up at 10 — after quarterback Geno Smith found fleet-footed wideout Tre Tucker for one of three touchdowns — the Commanders answered very quickly. Safety Jeremy Chinn seemed to have stonewalled running back Jeremy McNichols, however, the Commanders tailback remained on his feet, and shook off Chinn’s tackle and linebacker Elandon Roberts’ attempt to gallop for a 60-yard touchdown — 17-10 Washington in the span of 49 seconds of game clock.
“Huge play. That’s just not the football that we play, and that’s what I’m saying,” Carroll said when asked about the long run. “We have to be better, because it starts right with that. If you give up big plays, you’re no good, and we were no good today.”
Let’s hit the quick slants as fast as McNichols took off for the touchdown:
—Tucker had a career game with eight catches for 145 yards and three touchdowns — the longest of which was a 61-yard bomb from Smith. Jakobi Meyers was the next most productive receiving option for the Raiders with three catches for 63 yards.
**—Smith had a bounce back performance going 19 of 29 for 289...
