Silver And Black Pride
Las Vegas pulls trick out of its bag as unit overall shines in Week 12 defeat
AJ Cole III is normally showcasing his powerful and accurate leg gamedays for the Las Vegas Raiders.
But this past Sunday, the Silver & Black’s reliable punter got to show of his arm on a fake punt that gained 34-yards against the visiting Denver Broncos.
Cole sending the ball into orbit on fourth downs has become such a common occurrence that assistant special teams coach Derius Swinton II — filling in for special team’s boss Tom McMahon who didn’t coach in the loss to the Broncos — dug into the Raiders bag of trick and dialed up the fake punt. Denver was clearly expecting Cole to punt on the 4th-and-4 situation in the second quarter that linebacker Divine Deablo found himself wide open on a drag route across the middle for the nifty gain.
The drive culminated in a field goal to boost the Raiders lead to 10-6 and it was a nice fake, equally nice throw, and a quality gain for Las Vegas — even if it was in a 29-19 losing effort.
Cole did punt four times and put up his usual gawdy numbers — 190 yards with an average of 47.5 yards per boot. The longest punt of the afternoon was a 60-yarder and two of Cole’s blasts were downed inside Denver’s 20-yard line (gunner DJ Turner downed a third-quarter boot at the one-yard line, for example).
Yet, in head-to-head, Cole was outdone by Broncos punter Riley Dixon who had four punts for 192 yards (48.0 average per boot). His long was a 54-yarder and he had two punts downed inside Las Vegas’ 20-yard line.
Accounting for 13 of the Raiders’ 19-point total, place kicker Daniel Carlson was money on his attempts going 4-for-4 when called in to hit a field goal. He sent kicks from 34 (2), 53, and 22 yards out through the uprights and nailed his lone extra point attempt against Denver.
Not only that, but Carlson was also 5-for-5 on touchbacks on kick offs negating the Broncos’ ability to return the ball.
That all said, like Cole, Carlson was overshadowed by his counterpart, Denver kicker Wil Lutz — who went 5-for-5 on field goals (a long of 54) and 2-for-2 on point after attempts. Lutz finished with 17 of Denver’s total of 29.
Cole remains atop the NFL with a 52.8 yard average per punt. He’s ahead of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Logan Cooke (51.6) and the Detroit Lions’ Jack Fox (51.1) in that category. Flip it to net average (average per punt with return yards and touchback yards taken into account) and Cole is fourth overall at 44.3. Cooke (46.4) and Fox (45.5) lead that category.
Overall, Cole is 14th in total punts (41) and 13th in yards (2,165). The Cleveland Browns’ Corey Bojorquez is the league leader in both categories at 58 punts and 2,920 yards, respectively. Cole is...
