The Morning After: Raiders at Texans

After sleeping on it, the 27-24 loss the Raiders suffered yesterday still stings, even the morning after.

Going into the contest, the Raiders had a clear advantage over the Texans because of the losses in their secondary. Gareon Conley, who was with his new team for less than a week, was thrown into the starting lineup.

In addition to the injuries on defense, the Texans offense was without starting right tackle, Tytus Howard as well as back up, Roderick Johnson. Do I even need to mention JJ Watt left the game with an injury in the first half and did not return?

It was a game the Raiders should have and could have won but didn’t. These are the types of losses that at the end of the season you look back on and could be the difference between making the playoffs and not.

Defensively, the Raiders were absolutely gassed in the second half after a decent showing in the first. Seventeen of the Texans 27 points came in the second half on drives of nine plays 53 yards, 15 plays 77 yards, and nine plays 75 yards.

In fact, Houston scored on three of their four second-half possessions except for their final drive when they ran the clock out in four-minute offense. The Texans controlled the time of possession from 35:53 to 24:07.

The Texans offense finished with 388 yards of total offense, 258 through the air, and 130 on the ground.

Penalties were a major issue for the Raiders, racking up 11 flags for 110 yards. Speaking to the media after the game, Jon Gruden was quoted as saying, “When you have 100 yards in penalties and give up 30 first downs, it’s going to be tough to win against a playoff team.”

Rodney Hudson was lost for the game with an ankle injury just eight plays in. Even without Hudson, the leader of the line, they did not allow any sacks. Tyrell Williams returned to the lineup after missing two games and had a nice game catching three passes for 91 yards and a touchdown.

However, it was the pass he couldn’t come down with that Raiders fans will remember. Lined up one on one with Gareon Conley on 3rd and 16, trailing 27-24, Derek Carr threw Williams a back-shoulder ball. Conley tightly guarded Williams, maybe a little too tight if you ask Jon Gruden.

Williams had the ball in his hands, but Conley was able to jar the ball loose and force a Raiders punt.

Unable to stop the Texans in four minute offense the Raiders defense was not able to get the stop they needed to give the offense a chance.

This one certainly hurts and will take some time to get over but as they say in the NFL you have 24 hours to get over it and move on to the next opponent.