Oakland Raiders: Turnovers, Explosive Plays, Doom Team In Blowout Loss

The Oakland Raiders saw their hopes for a playoff berth take yet another hit after a sloppy performance against Buffalo saddled them with yet another loss.

The Oakland Raiders, coming off a tremendous, spirit-lifting win over division rival Kansas City last week, traveled to Buffalo to take on a Bills team that’s been surprising people around the league this year.

And it didn’t go very well for the Silver and Black.

Coming into the game, Oakland was a very disappointing 3-4 on the season, making them the cellar dweller in the AFC West. In the meantime, Buffalo was riding high at 4-2, fighting to keep pace with the Patriots atop the AFC East.

There was a lot riding on this game for both teams. Unfortunately, only one team seemed to come to the game prepared and ready to play – Buffalo.

Oh, the game started off well enough, with quarterback Derek Carr pushing the ball downfield to stake the Raiders to a 7-0 lead. It was a crisp, sharp drive and lulled a lot of us into thinking that the team who showed up to play the Chiefs last week, had indeed showed up to play the Bills.

Yeah, that’s what we call false sense of security.

After Oakland scored on a touchdown plunge to little used Jamize Olawale, Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor led Buffalo on a nine-play, 64-yard drive to tie the game up. Taylor and the Bills used a couple of “big plays” on the drive – a 22-yard reception by Zay Jones and a 14-yard run by LeSean McCoy among them – before a six yard touchdown toss to former Raider fan favorite Andre Holmes capped it off and drew the teams even.

And that’s when the wheels really fell off.

More from Golden Gate Sports

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
• Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve

After exchanging punts on the ensuing pair of drives, Carr had the Raiders starting to click. After getting pinned on their own one-yard line, the Raiders ran five plays and picked up 38-yards to get out of the shadow of the endzone.

The offense seemed to be humming until DeAndre Washington coughed up the ball on a five-yard reception, allowing Bills linebacker Matt Milano to scoop it up and race 40-yards for a defensive touchdown, giving Buffalo a quick 14-7 lead.

And things only got worse from their as, all told, Buffalo rattled of 27 completely unanswered points, taking a 27-7 lead in the third quarter en route to a blowout, laugher of a win, 34-14.

Following that initial touchdown drive, Oakland’s offense went deader than the proverbial doornail. They didn’t get on the board again until the fourth quarter, “cutting” Buffalo’s lead to 27-14. Though, realistically, the game was already far from being in doubt at that point.

Two things went into this horrendous loss – turnovers and giving up explosive plays. Although, aside from Buffalo’s initial touchdown drive, the defense had done a decent enough job at containing those plays. At least, until the third quarter.

Next: Explosive Plays A Threat To Doom Season

In the third quarter, Taylor again led Buffalo on a long, 12-play drive that consumed 80-yards. And on that play, the Bills dropped a number of “big plays’ on the Oakland defense. An 18-yard run by McCoy. A 24-yard pass to Brandon Tate. A 36-yard pass to Holmes.

The drive was capped off by a one-yard touchdown plunge by Taylor to put Buffalo up 27-7.

Aside from giving up a plethora of big plays – again – the Raiders, apparently in a charitable mood, gave the ball away to the Bills like Halloween candy.

The Raiders lost two very costly fumbles. There was the aforementioned Washington gaffe that Buffalo turned into seven quick points. But coming out of halftime, the Raiders defense did a good job of forcing a Buffalo three-and-out.

On the ensuing punt though, Jalen Richard muffed the catch and the Bills pounced on it. The defense again, did a good job of keeping the Bills out of the endzone, but Buffalo still rang up another three points. Oakland was lucky to not lose all four they put on the ground, recovering two of them, but those two they did lose, cost this Raiders team 10 points on the day.

But wait, there’s more.

Following that field goal off Richard’s fumble that put the Raiders in a 17-7 hole, Carr, facing a third and nine on his own twenty-one yard line, fired off a pass intended for Michael Crabtree – and saw it picked off by Bills safety Micah Hyde.

The Bills took over on Oakland’s 41-yard line and drove six plays before settling for a field goal to give the Bills a 20-7 lead. And the game was effectively over beyond that point.

Three of Oakland’s four total turnovers on the day (two fumbles, two interceptions) cost this team 13 points and put them behind the eight-ball almost from the jump.

Oakland, despite having ten days to prepare for Buffalo, didn’t come out looking like a team ready to play. And they certainly didn’t look like they had a coherent game plan designed to attack Buffalo’s weaknesses.

And now, after yet another terrible game in a season that seems flush with them, the Raiders are sitting at 3-5 at the halfway point of their schedule. A schedule that gets exponentially more difficult from here.

The sky isn’t quite falling just yet. An inspired second half run could lift this team. But, we’ve yet to see this team play like they can maintain the sort of inspiration they need to make such a run.

Too many mistakes. Too many turnovers. Too many explosive plays given up by the defense and not enough made by the offense. And too many questions that remain unanswered.

This was an ugly loss and what’s quickly becoming an ugly season. And the Raiders are fast running out of chances to get things right.