Oakland Raiders: Notes from shocking Week 5 win over the Chicago Bears
By Sean Basile
The Oakland Raiders may want to stay in London for a while because they looked like a legitimate football team on Sunday and found success on all fronts
Somehow…..someway…..the Oakland Raiders pulled it off on Sunday and took down the best defense in football 24-21.
Without their best receiver in Tyrell Williams and deep threat in J.J Nelson, the Raiders still managed to move the ball for 398 total yards and get Josh Jacobs going for 123 yards on the ground with two rushing touchdowns.
The Chicago Bears had the best run defense in football last year and were fourth in rushing yards allowed this season up until Sunday when Jacobs blazed them.
It’s also worth noting that the Raiders, not the Bears, tore it up in the pass rush this week with four sacks as opposed to zero from Khalil Mack and company. No way did anybody see that coming!
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I’m as shocked as most of you are with this result.
The Bears are the better team with the much better defense, but Sunday was just simply the Raiders’ day. They did what they were supposed to do when going up against a team like the Bears — get out to the early lead and make the other team play catch-up.
A team like the Bears, much like the Indianapolis Colts last week, and much like the Minnesota Vikings the week before that, is designed to play from ahead.
They have limited offenses. In terms of Minnesota and Chicago, their quarterbacks are limited. In terms of Indianapolis, they were without T.Y. Hilton and lost Marlon Mack during the game.
The way to beat teams like them is to score first and throw them off their game, which is exactly what the Raiders did last week to the Colts and this week to the Bears. They went up 17-0 on Chicago to end the first half and made the Bears have to scramble in the second half.
That’s how they forced mistakes on Chase Daniel, who threw the Raiders two interceptions (one in the first half, one in the second). That’s how they held the Bears to 236 yards of total offense.
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I certainly don’t know what to make of the Raiders right now. They’re 3-2 and in second place in the AFC West. Thank God they have a bye coming up because I’ve gotten their games wrong in two-straight weeks.
This team is supposed to be a mess. They had the whole Antonio Brown debacle. Then they had the Vontaze Burfict season-long suspension. They have the biggest showman head coach in Jon Gruden. They’re not supposed to be winning games.
But they are.
That was a great win on Sunday. The offensive line played phenomenal against an elite pass rush. The offense looked fluid. Everything went right for the Raiders.
Next. Oakland Raiders: Top 5 takeaways from Week 5 victory over the Chicago Bears. dark
I’m not sure how sustainable it is, but this team isn’t all that bad at the current moment.