Those inside Allegiant Stadium on Sunday afternoon were treated to an old-fashioned third-quarter magic show as Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills offense pulled a rabbit out of their hat on a wild touchdown toss in the red zone.
The dazzling display of never giving up on a play resulted in the Bills quarterback Josh Allen flicking the ball to wide receiver Keon Coleman for the 12-yard score to vault Buffalo’s led to 23-16 — an advantage it would hold the rest of the way — highlighting the visitors
resilience while also showcasing the host Las Vegas Raiders’ lack of coaching and player execution on defense as the Silver & Black fell 33-30.
Las Vegas didn’t go away quietly, however, finally going with deep throws culminating in wide receiver Tre Tucker’s 44-yard diving touchdown catch on a throw from quarterback Kirk Cousins, but the onside drop kick went way too high with Buffalo kneeling the ball to run out the clock.
Credit to the Raiders for keeping it close. The team put forth a better effort in a three-point loss than the shellacking in New England in Week 5.
However, close isn’t good enough in the NFL and valiant showings don’t necessarily reflect in the final score — and more importantly, the standings — as Klint Kubiak’s Raiders have dropped three-straight games after Sunday’s defeat.
“I just want to say very disappointed. Very disappointed that we didn’t get it done today,” Kubiak began his postgame press conference. “Credit to Buffalo; they played a great game. As a team, we did not close the game, and there’s plenty of improvement. But we are not satisfied with any moral victories, and we’re a 3-3 football team with everything ahead of us. Avoided injuries today, so we’re moving forward, but we didn’t get it done today.”
Forgive Kubiak if the moral victories portion of his presser opener stings a bit. He’s not steeped in the Raiders’ patented ineptitude as many long-time fans are. And for those ardent folks in Raider Nation — buried underneath a mountainous pile of losing the team has done — “close” and “almost” are gargantuan leaps to what they’ve had to bear witness too. Kubiak’s standard is way higher, but the constant pummeling the loyal fanbase has taken, the miniscule crumb that’s the slightest glimmer of hope is a five-course meal for the famished.
That noted, it’s difficult to not feel Kubiak’s disappointment.
Throughout the game, the Raiders briefly took a lead and tied the contest against a high-octane Bills defense. But miscues in all three phases of the game haunted Las Vegas even when its red zone defense stymied Buffalo. Joe Brady’s Bills offense went 3-of-5 in the red zone while Kubiak’s attack went 2-of-5 and having just one more end zone visit in the area between the opponent’s 20-yard line and goal line was a big difference. As was the lone turnover of the contest, committed by the Raiders.
Which makes the mistakes in a variety of aspects — on offense, center Tyler Linderbaum’s false start on 4th-and-short; on defense, eye violations that left Allen and running back James Cook open for a 29-yard catch and run on 3rd-and-3 in the 4th quarter (led to touchdown); on special teams a facemask penalty on Segun Olubi on a punt return — highlight bad complementary football stand out for the Raiders. And the third quarter duds from Las Vegas offense only compounds matters.
“It’s happened three times, and it’s killing us, absolutely killing us, and I have not fixed it. So, shame on me. It’s on me to get it fixed,” Kubiak said of Linderbaum’s false start and penchant to do so in short-yardage situations.
“I’m really upset with how we’re starting the third quarter. Go three and out. That’s disappointing,” Kubiak added about the team’s third stanza performance. “Every game has adversity. The game’s not over in the third quarter when you go three and out, but it really kills more than that.”
The Raiders didn’t get dog walked in Week 6 like it did in Week 5, so progress is being made. And like previous games, there’s plenty of teach tape for coaches and players to pour over and correct as the team preps for Week 7.
Let’s hit the quick slants as fast as Tucker torched the Bills secondary on his fourth-quarter touchdown:
—Tremendous credit to and effort by Bills cornerback Christian Benford who was tasked quite often with one-on-one coverage on Raiders elite pass catcher Brock Bowers. Benford won more matchups than he lost against Bowers and when Buffalo didn’t have their top corner on Las Vegas’ tight end, Bowers hauled in back-to-back 18- and 29-yard passes on the Raiders’ nine-play, 91-yard fourth-quarter touchdown drive to tie the game at 23.
—Both Tucker and tight end Michael Mayer came close to eclipsing the 100-yard receiving mark with 97 and 95, respectively. The fleet-footed wide receiver hauled in five passes and two touchdowns on seven targets while the tight end caught seven passes on nine targets.
—Cousins finished 23 of 41 for 313 yards and two touchdown passes with one awful interception. He did avoid getting sacked but took a few hits from Buffalo’s defense. His counterpart, Allen, finished 23 of 33 for 255 yards and two touchdown passes. He was sacked twice.
—Raiders defensive end Kwity Paye finally got back in the sack column with his takedown of Allen. Linebacker Quay Walker collected the team’s other sack on a perfectly called blitz in the first quarter. But overall, it was an up-and-down performance from the unit.
—The kickers for both teams got plenty of work in this contest as Buffalo’s Tyler Bass went 4-for-4 on field goals with a long of 47. Las Vegas’ Matt Gay finished 3-for-3 with a long of 35. Raiders punter AJ Cole III ended up with three punts for 166 yards (55.3 yards per boot average) with one dropping inside the Bills’ 20-yard line (long of 57).
Quote of Note
“Yeah, there’s no doubt that, that’s what it is. We got to find ways to close. You got to find the inches in the fourth quarter. You can’t go out in second to last possession and have three incompletions. You can’t in the third quarter throw an interception that gives them a short field and they get a touchdown off of it. You can’t go two for five in the red zone. You know third and goal, we got to come away with those four point plays and get the touchdown, not the kick in the field goal. Those are all the plays throughout the game that you look back on and you say, it didn’t give us a chance to win.”
—Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins on what it would take to close games out.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t include the comedic moment on the CBS broadcast between JJ Watt and Jim Nantz that I tweeted about:
Up Next
Sitting at .500 at 3-3 overall, the Raiders head to Inglewood for the second time this season, this time to face the Los Angeles Rams next Sunday. The host Rams fell to 2-4 overall after watching Chad Ryland’s 43-yard field goal go through the uprights as time expired as the Arizona Cardinals (also 2-4) got the 18-16 upset win. Las Vegas eyes getting back in the win column after three-straight losses and L.A. is just 1-3 at home this season.
