Live coverage: Raiders come up short at end of game in Cincinnati

By Case Keefer (contact)

Published Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Updated Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022 | 4:58 p.m.

Add another controversial playoff loss to the Raiders’ storied history of such defeats.

Las Vegas’ 26-19 loss to the Bengals Saturday evening at Paul Brown Stadium didn’t swing on a single play like the Tuck Rule game or the Immaculate Reception. But it will live on in infamy among the fan base all the same after an inadvertent whistle that went against the Raiders late in the first half.

On the first play out of the first-half’s two-minute warning, the Raiders’ defense had Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow scrambling towards the sideline. He zipped a pass to Tyler Boyd in the back of the end zone right before stepping out of bounds as a referee blew a whistle.

Several Raiders, including safety Tre’von Moehrig in coverage on Boyd, stopped playing before the veteran receiver caught the pass for six points. By NFL rules, the whistle should have made it a dead ball and replay of the third-down snap.

But there wasn’t as much as a discussion as the Bengals ran out kicker Evan McPherson for the extra point. The score put the Bengals up 20-6, and the Raiders never got closer than seven points down for the rest of the night.

The NFL declined immediate comment on what appeared to be an inadvertent whistle, but a league official told the NBC broadcast it would have an official statement after the game.

Las Vegas was visibly frustrated as many defensive players protested to the officials, but the team regrouped quickly and kept fighting all the way to the final, ahem, whistle. The Raiders got down to the Bengals’ 9-yard line for four plays as time was expiring at the end of regulation.

Quarterback Derek Carr spiked the ball to stop the clock on first down. On second down, he couldn’t fit his pass in a tight window to Hunter Renfrow. On third, the Bengals’ coverage left no one open.

And then, to end the game, he threw a pass short of the end zone intended for Jones that was intercepted by Germaine Pratt.

Carr led the Raiders’ only touchdown drive right after the inadvertent whistle in the first half,  going 75 yards on 11 plays in a two-minute drill. Jones caught a 14-yard pass to make the score 26-19.

But the Bengals marched right down the field to start the second half, leading to the rookie kicker McPherson making his third of four field goals on the night.

Cincinnati continually came up with big plays behind likely Rookie of the Year receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who had 116 yards on nine catches. He was Joe Burrow’s favorite target as the second-year quarterback finished with 244 yards and two touchdowns on 24-for-34 passing.

Burrow hit Chase three times on the Bengals’ opening drive but concluded it with a seven-yard touchdown strike to C.J. Uzomah.  

The Raiders had a number of big plays of their own, including a pair of long runs in the second quarter by Josh Jacobs who finished with 83 yards on 13 carries. But the Bengals finished one more drive than the Raiders with a touchdown, though who knows if that’s the case if the Boyd play was ruled dead as the rulebook indicates it should have been.

Check back to lasvegassun.com later for more coverage and read below for live updates from throughout the game.

Raiders settle for late field goal

Las Vegas drove to the 10-yard line, but again settled for a Daniel Carlson field goal as the kicker made his fourth of the day to make the score 26-19 with 3:34 to play.

The Raiders haven't forced a single three-and-out on the Bengals, and have only made the home team punt once, but the game will come to the defense's ability to do just that. Las Vegas has only one timeout remaining so it has no wiggle room for anything else. 

Raiders go back up 10 points

The Raiders are a little more than seven minutes away from elimination.

Evan McPherson made his fourth field goal for the Bengals, a 28-yarder, to put the home team ahead 26-16 with 7:20 remaining at Paul Brown Stadium. Desperately needing a long drive, Cincinnati was able to manage one as it went 65 yards on 13 plays to burn clock and go up by more than a touchdown.

As he’s been all game, rookie receiver Ja’Marr Chase was the key. He had two long catches to bring his stat line in the game to nine catches for 116 yards.

The Raiders need a quick strike score to get back in the game.

Raiders get margin down to a touchdown

Two plays into the fourth quarter, it’s a touchdown game at Paul Brown Stadium.

Daniel Carlson kicked his third field goal of the afternoon, a 34-yarder, to make cut Cincinnati’s lead to 23-16 over Las Vegas. The Raiders scored despite three holding calls going against them on their latest drive.

The last one, on guard John Simpson, all but doomed them to a field goal as it wiped out an 8-yard run by Josh Jacobs down to the 1-yard line. Jacobs has paced the Raiders’ offense again with 13 carries for 83 yards but, frustratingly for visiting fans, hasn’t found the end zone.

Las Vegas’ defense has only forced Cincinnati to punt in the game but will need to do so again on the next drive for a potential game-tying drive.

Bengals back up double digits

Evan McPherson has now attempted seven field goals against the Raiders this season, and he’s made all seven.

The Bengals’ rookie kicker out of Florida just coolly knocked through a 53-yarder to put Cincinnati up 23-13 on Las Vegas to start the second half at Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals went 45 yards on nine plays for the scoring drive.

Unlike the earlier whistle controversy, the Raiders actually saw a correct call go in their direction. Cincinnati appeared to have a long completion from quarterback Joe Burrow to wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase inside the five-yard line, but Las Vegas had called a timeout before the snap with 12 men on the field.

After a midfield conference, the referees granted Las Vegas the timeout. That helped the Raiders regroup and hold the Bengals to another field goal.

Raiders fight back after controversial call

Zay Jones went to the air to pull in a 14-yard pass from Derek Carr in the end zone and give a boost to the Raiders’ second-half comeback chances.

It’s 20-13 Bengals heading into halftime after the Raiders scored their only touchdown of the first half with 13 seconds left on the clock. Las Vegas’ offense looked revitalized by the opportunity to run a two-minute drill and answer Cincinnati’s previous touchdown on the first play outside of the two-minute warning.

Burrow hit Boyd with a 10-yard touchdown on that play but replay revealed a whistle blew and several Raiders stopped playing. In other words, the touchdown shouldn’t have counted.

But the Raiders kept playing and now have a chance in the second half at Paul Brown Stadium.

Tyler Boyd scores Bengals’ second touchdown

Make it two touchdown passes for Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, the latest perhaps a backbreaker for the Raiders shortly before halftime.

On a third-down play from the 10-yard line out of the two-minute warning, Burrow hit Tyler Boyd with a 10-yard touchdown pass to put Cincinnati up 20-6.

That’s far from an immeasurable deficit, but it feels like it with the way the Raiders’ offense has been playing. Las Vegas has only 109 yards on 21 plays, and that’s largely because of two big runs broken by Josh Jacobs.

Daniel Carlson makes second field goal

Field goal after field goal after field goal.

That’s the best description of the recent action at Paul Brown Stadium. The Raiders’ Daniel Carlson just made his second kick of the day, a 28-yarder to cut the Bengals’ lead down to 13-6.

Josh Jacobs gained 49 yards on two consecutive carries to get the Raiders into the red zone, but their season-long struggled near the end zone continued. Pressure helped prevent Derek Carr from completing two straight passes to send Carlson on the field.

Raiders’ defense stops Bengals near the goal line again

The Raiders’ defense is holding near the end zone. That’s about the only positive for Las Vegas so far.

The Bengals lead 13-3 after the second field goal of the day from kicker Evan McPherson. The rookie made a 30-yard field goal after a Quinton Jefferson sack on Joe Burrow pushed Cincinnati from the 4-yard line to the 12-yard line.

The Bengals got down to the goal line on a 28-yard pass from Burrow to Ja’Marr Chase, the rookie’s fifth reception of the day. Chase currently has 65 yards — seven more than the Raiders’ total.

Bengals make their lead 10-3

The defense saved the Raiders from early disaster in its second stint on the field.

The Bengals took over at the 15-yard line after Trey Hendrickson strip-sacked Derek Carr, but the Raiders were able to stuff Joe Mixon on a couple runs and hold them to a field goal. Evan McPherson made a 31-yarder to make the score 10-3 in favor of Cincinnati.

Bengals score an opening-drive touchdown

If the Bengals’ first drive is any indication, Joe Burrow’s knee is perfectly fine.

Cincinnati’s second-year quarterback, who sat out last week’s game, took the team 75 yards in 10 plays to go up 7-4 on Las Vegas just more than 10 minutes into the game. Star rookie receiver Ja’Marr Chase had three catches on four targets, but tight end C.J. Uzomah got the score on a 7-yard pass from Burrow.

It was a hit for a Raiders’ defense that had played well at the end of the season, but there’s a lot of game left for the unit to turn it around.

Daniel Carlson gets Raiders on board first

The Raiders came away with three points on their first possession of the playoffs.

Daniel Carlson just squeezed in a 47-yarder to put the Raiders up 3-0 on a drive where Derek Carr converted passes on a pair of third-downs. Zay Jones and Darren Waller extended the drives on those plays, but Mike Hilton broke up the third third-down conversion attempt on a pass intended for Hunter Renfrow.

Josh Jacobs had four carries for 11 yards on the opening drive. Now it’s the Bengals’ turn.

Nassib in, Koonce out for Raiders

Rookie edge rusher Malcolm Koonce showed some flashes late in the season for the Raiders, but he won’t be suited up for today’s playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals

Koonce headlines the just-released list of Las Vegas inactives, which also included cornerback Amik Robertson, linebacker Patrick Onwuasor, guard Jordan Simmons, tackle Jackson Barton, tight end Nick Bowers and defensive tackle Kendal Vickers.

Koonce’s exclusion from the gameday roster isn’t necessarily a surprise, but it was uncertain whether he or Carl Nassib would get the final defensive-end spot. Nassib had been hurt with Koonce filling in well in his absence.

But the Raiders decided to go with the veteran over the rookie.

Pregame

The Raiders and Bengals will do the honors of opening the 2021-22 NFL playoffs this afternoon, and one prolonged drought without a postseason win is guaranteed to end. The Raiders haven’t won a playoff game since 2003, when they beat the New York Jets and Tennessee Titans to reach the Super Bowl. The Bengals haven’t won one since 1991, when they beat the Houston Oilers in the wild-card round before the Raiders eliminated them in the divisional round. The other 12 teams in the postseason this year have all won in the playoffs within the past six years. Las Vegas will also be looking to avenge a 32-13 loss to Cincinnati in November at Allegiant Stadium. The Raiders limited the Bengals’ star young quarterback/wide receiver duo of Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase as well as any team this season but were undone by veteran running back Joe Mixon’s 132 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

Favorable matchup: Raiders’ receiving corps vs. Bengals’ defensive backfield

The Bengals’ secondary is the weakness of their team, and the Raiders will perhaps be at full strength in terms of their pass catchers for the first time in nearly two months. Last week, Las Vegas saw the return of gamebreaking tight end Darren Waller after a five-game absence, but he wasn’t 100% coming off knee and back injuries as well as COVID-19. He was out of sync with quarterback Derek Carr and had only two catches for 22 yards. The hope is that more participation in practice this week will move him closer to full capacity. Receiver Hunter Renfrow has turned into “a superstar,” in Waller’s words, during the tight end’s absence while the likes of Zay Jones and tight end Foster Moreau have also stepped up. DeSean Jackson was sick last week and barely played against the Los Angeles Chargers. If all the Raider receivers are better off, as expected, they could present problems for a Bengals defense that ranks 21st in the league in giving up 6.7 yards per pass attempt.

Problematic matchup: Trey Hendrickson vs. Raiders’ offensive line

The Bengals’ veteran defensive end is one of the most underrated edge rushers in the league and emerged as one of the keys to victory against the Raiders earlier this season. He got consistent pressure on Carr and sealed the victory with a strip-sack late in the fourth quarter. Hendrickson is on an 11-game sack streak and has only failed to get to the quarterback once in 14 games played this season. He was mostly matched up against left tackle Kolton Miller, the Raiders’ best offensive lineman, in Week 11 but more than held his own. Cincinnati has shifted Hendrickson around the defensive line a lot throughout the regular season, and that’s how he could really create issues against Las Vegas. Despite showing some improvement late in the season, the duo of guard Alex Leatherwood and tackle Brandon Parker are graded as the worst pass-blocking right side in the NFL by Pro Football Focus. Cincinnati’s Sam Hubbard gave the pair problems in the first game, but Hendrickson is even more capable.

Gamebreaker: Cornerback Casey Hayward

In a season full of standout performances, Hayward’s best game might have come against the Bengals the first time around. The veteran cornerback neither missed a single snap nor allowed a single completion, according to Pro Football Reference. That’s no small feat against the Bengals, considering how prolific the rookie Chase has been all season. Chase has 81 catches for 1,455 yards and 13 touchdowns but had only three catches for 32 yards against the Raiders. Hayward shut down a whole side of the field, helping to hold the Bengals’ second-year quarterback Burrow to a career-low 148 yards and 5.1 yards per attempt. In his first season in Las Vegas, the 32-year-old veteran Hayward has given the Raiders the shutdown cornerback they had lacked in recent years. He ranks as the 15th-best cornerback in the league — behind teammate nickelback Nate Hobbs at 10th — by Pro Football Focus’ grading system.

Big Number: 150

Points by Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson this season, tied for the NFL lead with New England Patriots kicker Nick Folk. Carlson now holds the NFL record with five walk-off, game-winning kicks in a season after last week’s 47-yarder to lift the Raiders to a 35-32 victory against the Chargers. The sideline has become increasingly calm when Carlson trots out for a big kick, a testament to how reliable he’s been in making 40 of 43 overall attempts this year. Teammates even have a nickname for him — “the sniper,” because of his lethal accuracy. The Raiders needed to win four straight games to reach the postseason, and they did it by a total of 12 points with the small margin underscoring the necessity of the kicker continually coming through. Without Carlson, the Raiders wouldn’t have reached their goal of advancing to the playoffs.

Best Bet (7-10): Zay Jones under 4.5 receptions

Jones has gone over this total in five straight games as he’s found his fit in the Raiders’ offense, but there’s going to be a lot more competition for targets in the playoffs. Renfrow and Waller are the go-to guys. Jackson edges Jones as the best deep threat on the roster. Bryan Edwards is a more physical, possession option. Jones has admirably done a little bit of everything during his hot streak, but now with everyone back, he may need to find a new niche. His workload was already relatively pared down against the Chargers, as he had only three catches for 11 yards in regulation. He then caught a pair of important passes in overtime for 18 yards. Look for Jones to only haul in two or three passes against the Bengals.

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or