The Oakland Raiders put their flawless road record on the line when they visit the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. A new chance to put the past behind them and start a fresh chapter on this season – a chapter in which the defense could possibly fulfill the promise they showed when the season began. Because of this I see the Raiders leaving Jacksonville at 5-2 in a close game. “It’s amusing that we get our best home-field advantage when we go to Wembley [Stadium]”. And Oakland’s kick coverage units had one of the team’s three takeaways when they recovered a fumble by Jacksonville’s Rashad Greene on a botched punt return. They committed the only three turnovers of the game.
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They left for the first leg of their journey Friday following practice and won’t return to the Bay Area until October 30.
“We make those suggestions to the league”. Oakland is 1-2 at the Coliseum this season and 4-7 since Del Rio took over. For the first time since entering the NFL in 2014, there are doubts in league circles about whether Bortles is a true “franchise” passer because of his high turnover ratio (44 INTs in 35 career appearances).
Not one of Bradley’s first 12 wins came against a team that finished with a winning record and wins against the Indianapolis Colts and Chicago Bears in 2016 don’t look like they’ll snap that trend.
“Those guys have a lot of skins on the wall, so to speak”, Del Rio said. Defensively, the Raiders are yielding 27.2 points and 444.8 total yards (312.7 in passing and 132.2 in rushing) per game against the opposing teams.
“Offensively, we’re not playing as well as we did (last season)”, Jaguars coach Gus Bradley said. A lot of things happened and I got thrown out as a result. Blake Bortles seems to have regressed this year and that’s a worrisome sign.
And outside of the tackle box, there are two highly underrated receivers, Allen Hurns and Allen Robinson. Jacksonville did it in 2013 when it played in Oakland in Week 2 and at Seattle in Week 3.
Oakland’s offense also gets stopped short, and their mediocre third down percentage (36.1, 24th in the NFL) becomes a major reason they can’t answer back.
Latavius Murray’s return from turf toe provided a spark for Oakland’s running game, and quarterback Derek Carr was efficient and effective in a 33-16 victory against the listless Jaguars on Sunday.
“Any back wants the ball in his hands, and I’m one of them”, Murray said. “I don’t think I should have been thrown [out of] the game for it”.
Carr and the Raiders offense stalled in the second half, but the defense continued to come up strong when Jack Del Rio and the coaching staff needed it most. He said he has no idea what kind of reception he’ll get Sunday, but it’s sure to be a mixture of boos and cheers.
Quarterback Derek Carr went big on 3rd-and-5 late in the second quarter, sending a perfectly-arched ball down the right sideline that Crabtree caught over his shoulder at full gallop for a 56-yard gain that set up the Raiders’ second touchdown in five minutes. Lee said he used the N-word, but said he used it in response to several Raiders players also using it. Could they use it earlier in the game?
“I just think he got into a great rhythm”, Olson said. “Any time you win on the road, it’s tough; you win on the road by double digits, it was a good, solid victory for us”. The Raiders are just 1-5 against the spread in their last six games versus the Jaguars.
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Del Rio is particularly fond of “complementary football”, where offense, defense and special teams mesh and serve each other.
