Oakland Raiders: Notes And Observations From Week Ten

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Nov 15, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (28) is congratulated by wide receiver Stefon Diggs (14) after rushing for a touchdown against the Oakland Raiders in the fourth quarter at O.co Coliseum. The Vikings defeated the Raiders 30-14. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Flat From The Start

In a game as big as the game against Minnesota was, you would have expected that the Raiders would have come out fired up and ready to go. But if you expected that, you were surely sorely disappointed to see Oakland come out completely flat.

On Minnesota’s opening drive, the Vikings marched 80 yards in just nine plays for a touchdown. The defense didn’t seem to be playing with any fire at all and allowed the Vikings to do pretty much whatever they wanted in marching for the score.

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It wasn’t a great start for the Raiders, but with the way the offense had been playing recently, it didn’t seem like the end of the world at the time. Unfortunately, it was simply foreshadowing what was to come.

When Derek Carr and the offense took the field, we all expected to see fireworks. The offense had been humming along well recently, racking up yards and putting up points. Instead of fireworks though, what we all got was an absolute dud.

Two Latavius Murray runs up the middle netted a total of four yards, and a Carr incompletion led to a three and out and a punt on Oakland’s first series of the game.

That sort of vanilla, uninspired play calling seemed to be OC Bill Musgrave‘s game play for the Vikings as there were very few shots downfield taken and the offense played it pretty conservative for most of the game. Only when time was running down and the Raiders were in a big hole did Musgrave start taking a few more chances in his up tempo offense.

The Raiders were just flat and uninspired on both sides of the ball. They only started putting it together when it was too little too late. That lack of fire and passion contributed greatly to their poor performance and ultimate rout at the hands of the Vikings.

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