Nothing went right for the Raiders in their blowout loss to the Patriots Sunday. But perhaps the most baffling was how well New England seemed to lock down the Raiders receivers.
Time and time again, Kirk Cousins took too long to throw the ball. He would scan the field, looking for someone to throw to, and was unable to find anyone. This resulted in a considerable number of times he was throwing under pressure or while being hit or getting sacked.
Now, the Patriots are a good team. And they have a solid defense. But they were badly depleted in the cornerback room, including Pro Bowler Christian Gonzalez and Super Bowl winning starter Carlton Davis. They also lacked depth with two backups sidelined. They would seem ripe for the picking.
The problem,
in part, is the Raiders are not the team equipped to take advantage of such a situation. They have arguably the worst wide receiver corps in the league, made all the worse by the fact that Jalen Nailor was out with a concussion and Jack Bech and Dont'e Thornton are on injured reserve.
There isn't even any proof that having those guys would have made a big difference. Nailor and Bech have ten catches combined this season and Thornton had ten catches all of last season.
All the Raiders have going for them is Brock Bowers. And he saw plenty of targets (10) pulling in eight catches for 110 yards and a touchdown. That's more than the entire Raiders wide receiver corps had combined on Sunday.
Head coach Kilint Kubiak has taken the blame for abandoning the run too early and Kirk Cousins said they were too one-dimensional. But with that situation, along with the defense giving up three touchdown drives in the first half, you can kinda understand why they would take to the air.
But instead of Kirk Cousins abusing the Patriots backup corners, it was Drake Maye who was throwing bombs downfield. Mainly because he actually seems to have receivers who can routinely get behind the defense.
Anyway, it's probably getting tiresome at this point hearing about how bad the Raiders are at wide receiver. Though not nearly as bad as having to watch them on the field. And the problem is not going away anytime soon. Brock Bowers can do a lot of heavy lifting, but even he can only do so much. This might be beyond his abilities.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders futility vs Patriots depleted secondary a harsh indictment
