Despite his undeniable physical gifts, he’s never developed into the offensive big-play threat that they’d hoped he’d be for the organization. After three straight games of explosive offense, the fans were expecting fireworks. Wide receiver Amari Cooper caught five passes for 79 yards. But it takes a lot of work to go from lousy to mediocre to decent to really good, and the Raiders clearly aren’t at the last stage yet.
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And the Raiders, who two weeks ago were the putative favorite to be a Wild Card team now don’t win tiebreaker for eighth with Kansas City.
Instead of a chance for Oakland’s offense, which had seemingly finally found a rhythm, the Vikings got the ball back and got in position for a 53-yard field goal attempt that Blair Walsh missed. “It does feel good, but at the same time we still have quite a few games left”.
More good news on the defensive front comes in the form of starting end Brian Robison. We can’t say that after today. “We’ve got to get back to the drawing board and the wins will follow”. The Vikings and Raiders have met on 14 occasions, but the Raiders are now leading this series 10-4. Coming off last week’s bad loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Raiders are looking to get back on track and stay in the thick of the playoff hunt.
After going down 13-0, Derek Carr and the offense came alive in the latter stages of the second quarter. “But we’re learning as we go”. The defense has allowed just 81 points, or 16.2 per contest.
The Vikings (6-2) have won four consecutive games and are tied with Green Bay atop the NFC North division.
Oakland cornerback Neiko Thorpe crashed the line of scrimmage but was helpless in trying to arm tackle Peterson, who easily broke through and scampered untouched the final 70-plus yards.
Run defense: The Raiders have allowed 458 yards on the ground in the past two games after being the No. 2 ranked run defense in the NFL.
No, the Vikings aren’t perfectly healthy right now heading into the key game that starts the second half of the schedule, but no team in the National Football League is perfectly healthy after eight games. Simply put, you get a big body out there running patterns and the Raiders will have a tough time defending it. Both seem satisfied with their selections. To that end, Bridgewater did take advantage of what Oakland gave him, completing 14 of his 22 passes for 140 yards and a score.
Derek Carr threw two touchdown passes for Oakland, but also was intercepted twice.
Maybe, then, that’s what Del Rio means by a “week-to-week league”. That didn’t happen Sunday.
After an interception by Newman, the Vikings moved into the red zone again. The Vikings converted that into a field goal. Patterson bobbled a squib kick from Sebastian Janikowski before taking it back all the way untouched for his third career kick return touchdown, making it 20-14 at the break. Peterson finished with 203 yards on 26 carries for the Vikings, who will play host to the Packers next Sunday.
In short, the Raiders sprung leaks in all phases.
“You have to be sharp the whole game with him”, linebacker Malcolm Smith said. “And he made plays today to win the game”.
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“When you lose, it’s hard”, Carr said. But Patterson dropped an anvil on the Raiders’ head. He’s made them contenders, made them relevant, made them a team built for playoff football.
