Silver And Black Pride
Outside of the quarterback position, Las Vegas didn’t play that poorly
Another week and another crushing loss for the Las Vegas Raiders. This time, the Raiders managed to keep it to a one-possession defeat in Week 7 against the Los Angeles Rams, as the majority of Las Vegas’ players didn’t play badly.
However, the team was held back by poor quarterback play as Gardner Minshew stepped in for the injured Aidan O’Connell and the former headlines this week’s winners and losers.
While it’s hard to pin a loss on one player, it’s also hard to ignore the fact that all four of Minshew’s turnovers made significant impacts on the scoreboard. His first two interceptions set the Rams up with short fields and led to touchdowns, and his fumble was returned for a score. So, all 20 of Los Angeles’ points can be tied back to Las Vegas’ quarterback.
To make matters worse, Minshew ended the game with another pick to slam the door shut on the Silver and Black. Also, his positive plays were few and far between as Pro Football Focus credited him with zero “big-time throws” and just nine first downs on 34 passing attempts, let alone a touchdown.
Unfortunately, O’Connell is out for four to six weeks with a broken thumb. Presumptively, that would mean Minshew would be the team’s starter moving forward, but he was so bad—and has been bad all year—that the coaching staff should at least consider giving the job to undrafted free agent and current practice squad quarterback Carter Bradley.
Moehrig had a pretty impressive outing on Sunday, especially against the run. He was flying around and making plays to finish tied for second on the team with six total tackles, three of which PFF charted as defensive stops against the run. The latter is tied for fifth among safeties for the week (pre-Monday Night Football) as this was a much-needed bounce-back performance for Moehrig since he was struggling to begin the year.
Again, the defense was far from Las Vegas’ biggest issue in Los Angeles, but Jenkins was a non-factor in the contest without recording a single tackle or even a pressure. On top of that, he earned an ugly 28.8 run-defense grade which is supposed to be his calling card. It’s been a pretty disappointing campaign for the 35-year-old and it might be time to see what the younger defensive tackles can do as the team starts to focus on the future.
In back-to-back weeks filling in for an injured Dylan Parham, Meredith has played very well. He got the start this time around and finished as the Raiders’ highest PFF-graded offensive player (85.1), just barely edging out Brock Bowers by 0.1 points. That mark also currently leads all guards for the week, and Meredith has yet to allow a pressure on 77 opportunities. That could earn him some playing time even when Parham gets...
