Oakland Raiders: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Vs. Tennessee Titans

The Bad – Dropped Balls

Dropped passes was a problem that plagued the Raiders last season – most especially then-rookie wideout Amari Cooper. Last season, Cooper led the team with ten dropped passes – second in the entire NFL. Michael Crabtree chipped in with eight drops of his own.

As a team, the Raiders dropped a whopping 31 passes in total. That put them second in the entire league, behind only Philadelphia in that dubious category.

And alarmingly, that problem seems to be resurfacing again this year.

Thus far, through three games this season, the Raiders are again in the upper echelon of the league in dropped passes with five in total. Clive Walford and Seth Roberts have dropped two apiece and Cooper has dropped one.

While some are quick to point out that Cooper is doing a much better job of hanging on to the ball – and he is – those folks are not seeing the bigger picture. They’re missing the point. And that point is that the Raiders – as a team – are still dropping far too many passes.

Drops can be contagious and they can absolutely derail an offense. We’ve seen the Raiders have drives stall out because a receiver couldn’t hang on to a pass – far too many times to count. Granted, there are teams who have dropped more balls – the Rams lead the league with eight at the moment. But the Raiders are still in a tie with the Jets and the Lions at fourth place on that list.

The good teams – the elite teams – know how to hang on to the ball and don’t drop many passes. This is an issue for this Raiders team. One they need to fix as quickly as possible.