Oakland Raiders: The Game Was Lost Long Before Papergate Was A Thing

The Oakland Raiders lost another game and their season is effectively over, leaving many cursing the officials and their index cards – but, truthfully, the game was lost long before that.

Given their loss to Dallas on Sunday Night Football, the Oakland Raiders’ season is effectively over. Unless something absolutely crazy happens – something that’s a near mathematical impossibility – Oakland is left to play out the string on 2017.

It’s an overwhelmingly disappointing end to a season that began with such high expectations and unfettered excitement. It’s a crushing blow to a team and a fanbase that actually bought into the buzz and hype.

Undoubtedly, most people will point to two plays that lost the game for the Raiders – the play coming to be known as #Papergate and the Derek Carr fumble at the goal line. The rage about those two plays is still palpable today, and understandably so.

And make no mistake, those two plays did have a defining impact on this game. But the Raiders lost to Dallas well before those two plays – late in the game – even occurred. No, the seeds for this latest loss – in a season full of them – were planted weeks ago.

And this team has been nurturing and fostering them all season long.

As has been a depressingly recurring theme this season, the Raiders came out onto a national stage, with the stakes as high as they’ve been for them this season, and laid a big, fat, smelly egg.

The Raiders came out of the gates against Dallas, their playoff lives literally hanging in the balance, and put up an absolute stinker. Offensively, anyway. The defense seemed to be playing with that “hair on fire” mentality HC Jack Del Rio spoke about – as they have ever since John Pagano took the reins.

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On Dallas’ first drive, Sean Smith – if you can believe it – picked off Dak Prescott to give the offense the ball at the 30. The offense then promptly took the field, ran three plays, and kicked it away. The sequence – Marshawn Lynch to the left, Lynch to the right, Carr incompletion – gained all of five yards and took about a minute and a half off the clock.

Their second drive was equally as dismal – maybe even more so, given the circumstances — failing to produce even a single first down. After a penalty set the Raiders up with a first and five, Carr threw a short pass to Jared Cook for four yards, giving them a second and one.

Lynch was tossed for a two yard loss, giving Oakland a very makeable third and three. Or, it would have been had Carr not thrown another incompletion to Michael Crabtree.

Both drives were horrid in their conception and their execution, and oh yeah, did nothing to attack Dallas’ weaknesses on that defense. Way to go, Todd Downing. Way to go.

That was the theme of the entire first half though. The Raiders ran a total of 27 plays, gained a total of 98 offensive yards, six first downs, held the ball for a grand total of ten minutes, forty-three seconds, and all they had to show for it was a missed 39-yard field goal by Giorgio Tavecchio as time expired.

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98 yards, just six first downs, and zero points, in the first half of their most important game of the year.

The defense did what it could, limiting Dallas to 162 yards of total offense and 10 points, but as has been the case with alarming regularity this year, they got absolutely no help from what was supposed to be one of the most dynamic and potent offenses in the league.

Oh, the Raiders came out and made a game of it in the second half, with Carr driving the team 90 yards in 11 plays for a score that got them back into it. And after a second Smith interception — if you can believe it — Oakland kicked a field goal to tie things up.

Oakland and Dallas then traded touchdowns, knotting the score up at 17 and setting up the controversy and frustration that marked the end of the game.

Truth be told though, with the defense playing as well as they did against Dallas, the offense just needed to show up. And they didn’t.

Yet again.

Yes, Derek Carr deserves a lot of the blame – but not necessarily what he’s being blamed for. He was wildly inaccurate, missing receivers all over the place. That too, has been a recurring theme this season. His efficiency and accuracy, as has been discussed everywhere, have both regressed in 2017.

He’s been getting crushed on social media for the fumble. But, how can you really fault a guy for trying to make a play? For trying to nail down a win for his team? Yeah, the easy thing to say is “he should have stepped out of bounds in that situation.”

Yeah, great. That’s about the easiest thing to say from the comfort of your living room.

Carr is a leader and a fierce competitor. He thought he had an opening to make the play, and in the bang-bang world of the NFL, everything happens at lightning speed. Undoubtedly, he wishes he could have that back. But, it’s not like he was trying to fumble the ball. He was trying to make a play and win a ballgame for his team.

It didn’t work out, obviously, and it’s horribly unfortunate, but crushing Carr for that one play is ludicrous.

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Gene Steratore’s infamous folded index card was an absolute travesty. And his explanation of his ruling made it that much worse when anybody not named Stevie Wonder can clearly see the gap between his stupid index card and the ball.

It certainly helped – as did Carr’s fumble – but, that’s not what ultimately lost the game for the Raiders. The fact that with everything on the line for this team, the offense came out and played a listless, uninspired half of football, put up 98 total yards of offense and zero points on a defense that gave up passing yards and scores by the bushel, is unforgivable.

Coming into the game, if you’re scoring at home, Dallas’ pass defense was ranked twenty-third in yards allow and twenty-seventh in scoring, having given up 24 passing touchdowns.

And against that, Carr and the Raiders managed just 70 passing yards and zero points in the first half.

It’s something we’ve seen all too often from this Raiders unit all season long. And when the lights have been the brightest and the stakes the highest, the offense has seemed to wilt the most – see the games against Washington, New England, Kansas City…

No doubt, #Papergate and the fumble impacted this game. This is not an argument that they didn’t. Though, a compelling argument can be made that it never should have come to that.

Make no mistake though, the seeds of this latest loss were planted weeks ago and over the last few games, with the spotlight burning the brightest and everything on the line for this team, those seeds have finally sprouted some truly rotten, stinking fruit.