Raiders week three Ballers & Busters vs Vikings

Even after seeing the Raiders get beaten up by the Chiefs and even knowing the Vikings are a very good team, I’m not sure I was prepared for just how bad they would look in Minnesota. This one they never had a chance.

At least against the Chiefs they jumped out to a 10-0 lead early. This one they were down 21-0 before putting any points on the board. Very little was working even in spurts for the Raiders on either side of the ball. They lost 34-14 and it wasn’t even that close. The only touchdown when the game was still undecided was on a trick play. The other one was pure garbage time.

Ballers

Darren Waller

He had his first catch of the day in the second quarter. At that point, the Raiders had a net 21 yards of offense and were down 21-0. He took the catch at the line and ran for 30 yards. The next play he went for nine yards. Three plays later, the Raiders scored their only touchdown of the game.

Waller added 7 yards on an end around and an 11-yard catch. That drive stalled when Carr’s pass for him was a bit high and behind him. He probably should have still made the catch, but it would have been a tough catch. It was the only ball he didn’t catch in the game on 14 targets.

At the half, Waller had 61 yards of offense. The rest of the Raiders offense had a combined 78 net yards.

Catching passes is his primary job, but Waller was also doing work as a blocker. In the third quarter, with the Raiders in 4^th and 1, Waller laid a block on a pitch to Josh Jacobs that went for 18 yards. He blocked again on the next play as DeAndre Washington picked up five yards.

The dynamic tight end finished with 134 yards on 13 catches and another 7 on a run. That’s 141 yards of the Raiders 302 net yards. His receiving yards are also more than the rest of the receivers combined (108). It’s just too bad his 38 yards on the Raiders final drive were useless stats.

AJ Cole

The rookie punter averaged 54.3 yards per punt with a net of 49.0 and two punts stopped inside the 20. He had punts of 60, 58, 53, and 40 (downed at the 8-yard line.

Continue to the Busters