Raiders week 15 report card vs Bengals: Offensive line gives Derek Carr little time to throw

A major storyline all week long at Raiders practice was the status of guards Kelechi Osemele and Gabe Jackson. Both were ruled out prior to the start of the game which left Denzelle Good and Chaz Green as the replacements. Good and Green have been on the roster less than a month.

Things were bound to be ugly on offense and oh, by the way, it was. The Raiders offense was forced to punt six times, had two turnovers, and Derek Carr was sacked five times. The Bengals offense was not much better, Jeff Driskel’s missed open receivers left and right. Driskel finished the game completing 42 percent of his passes.

At times it seemed if neither team actually wanted to win but the difference in the game was Joe Mixon, who rushed for 127 yards on 29 carries and scoring two touchdowns. Mixon’s second score of the game extended the Bengals leads to 30-16 and that was all she wrote for the Raiders.

Let’s take a look at the week 15 Raiders report card.

Aerial Attack: B-

After back to back great games by Derek Carr, he was not able to put the team on his back and carry them to victory.

Luckily for Carr it wasn’t all his fault. Carr was sacked five times throughout the game, including a first quarter sack from the blind side where he fumbled the ball and it was recovered by Cincinnati.

Carr had no chance on four of the five sacks. Bengals, rookie defensive end beat Kolton Miller like a drum, going by him as if Miller was standing still. The Bengals limited Carr’s favorite target Jared Cook to a quiet game, catching only two passes for 23 yards.

All that being said, it was a one possession game with 5:05 remaining.

Carr finished the game 21 for 38, with 262, and one touchdown.

Ground Game: F

Following their best performance from a week ago, the running backs followed that up with a stinker in week 15.

Outside of a Darren Waller jet sweep that went for 21 yards, the trio of Doug Martin, Jalen Richard, and DeAndre Washington combined for 49 yards on 14 carries (3.5 ypc).

Throw in a Jalen Richard fumble and it was a disastrous effort from the running attack.

Offensive Line: F

This is will be brief. The offensive line was bad, in particular Kolton Miller. He was used and abused by Sam Hubbard and Carlos Dunlop.

In addition to the sacks he allowed Miller also had a crucial false start penalty on 2nd and goal from the Bengals three yard line. The penalty moved the ball back to the eight yard line and after two incomplete passes the Raiders settled for a Daniel Carlson field goal to make the score 20-13.

Despite starting both Chaz Green and Denzelle Good, the majority of the pressure came from the edge. The guards held up well for the most part, Geno Atkins did create some problems for Green late in the game with two consecutive sacks.

Derek Carr was sacked for the 45th time this season. It’s time to begin questioning whether or not Tom Cable is the right man to lead this group of offensive linemen.

Defensive Line: D

Nothing notable to report from this group. Joe Mixon shredded the defense for 129 yards and two touchdowns. Besides Maurice Hurst making a nice play, sniffing out a screen early in the game, the defensive line failed to make an impact on the game.

Linebackers: C

The linebackers have been showing signs of life in recent weeks, but today they looked more like the mediocre crew of backers we saw early in the year and not the respectable bunch from the last two weeks.

Marquel Lee has continued to look more comfortable after being moved to the outside linebacker position.

Much like the defensive line, they failed to make an impact play and did not do enough to slow down Joe Mixon.

Secondary: A-

This grade is a bit deceiving, because yes an A- is something to be proud of but anyone who watched the game knows it was more about how bad Jeff Driskel was. However, the final numbers show that they held the Bengals to 14 completions for 130 yards of passing offense.

Driskel had open receivers that he could not connect with multiple times, had he competed those passes the final score could have been much different.

Erik Harris intercepted his first career pass and Karl Joseph continues to make a case for himself picking up a sack.

Gareon Conley exited the game with a concussion. Monitor his status during the upcoming week to see how he progresses through concussion protocol.

Special Teams: C

This is a tough one to grade because on one hand Daniel Carlson was excellent making all three of his field goal attempts, including one from 50 yards.

On the other hand, Johnny Townsend was back to his old ways, averaging only 38.2 yards per punt. And no play in the game was more critical than the kickoff team allowing Alex Erickson to go 77 yards to the Raiders 21 yard line.

Erickson’s return came just after the Raiders cut the Bengals lead to 23-16 with 5:05 remaining in the fourth. Two plays later, Joe Mixon took the ball 15 yards around the end for the nail in the coffin.

Overall Grade: C-