Raiders melt down again, lose in Jacksonville

By Case Keefer (contact)

Published Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Updated Sunday, Nov. 6, 2022 | 2:03 p.m.

It might not have been as embarrassing as last week’s shutout loss at New Orleans, but the Raiders’ performance today at TIAA Bank Field was demoralizing all the same.

Las Vegas lost to Jacksonville 27-20, falling to 2-6 on the season including 0-5 on the road. The defeat included the Raiders’ third blown 17-0 lead of the season as they got off to a hot start that they couldn’t maintain.

Star receiver Davante Adams caught two long touchdown passes in the first half, finishing with 10 catches for 146 yards, but had only one catch for three yards in the second half. The Jaguars, meanwhile, took off with four straight scoring drives from the middle of the second quarter to the start of the fourth quarter.

Jacksonville second-year running back Travis Etienne paced their attack, scoring two touchdowns and gaining 109 yards on 28 carries. Second-year quarterback Trevor Lawrence also caught fire after struggling early, completing 25 of 31 passes for 235 yards.

Scoring slowed down in the fourth quarter with the Raiders forcing a punt midway through and then benefitting from a missed field goal before the two-minute warning. Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr had more than enough time to take his team down the field with 2:25 remaining but couldn’t earn as much as a first down.

After a completion to Hunter Renfrow on first down, Carr threw three consecutive incompletions. The Raiders’ offense then got a reprieve when the Jaguars settled for a 48-yard field goal to make the score 27-20 with just over a minute remaining.

Carr tried to force another pair of passes to Adams, but one was nearly intercepted and the second bounced off his fingertips. He was then sacked by Dawune Smoot on third down to bring up a 4^th-and-long the Raiders didn’t come close to converting.

Like the Raiders, Carr and Adams got off to a strong start but couldn’t sustain it as the game went on.

This is a developing story. Check back later for more coverage and read below for live coverage from throughout the game.

Jacksonville has taken its first lead of the day at 24-20 over Las Vegas four seconds into the fourth quarter at TIAA Bank Field.

Jaguars running back Travis Etienne just scored his second touchdown of the day, on a five-yard run. Jacksonville had trouble getting its offense going early, but it’s humming now.

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence has thrown for 197 yards on 20-for-25 passing with Las Vegas getting beat up front, neither supplying any pressure nor clogging running lanes.

Jaguars score on opening drive of second half

Christian Kirk caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Lawrence, and the Jaguars are right back in the game with the Raiders at TIAA Bank Stadium

It’s 20-17 with 10:15 left to play in the third quarter. Jacksonville’s opening drive of the second half went 55 yards on nine plays.

It had a short field because of a kickoff coverage breakdown that allowed Jamal Agnew to break loose for 52 yards before kicker Daniel Carlson was among the group that helped get him down.

Buckle in, Raiders’ fans. This one won’t be as easy as the one-time 17-0 score may have indicated.

Teams swap field goals before halftime

The Raiders added a field goal before halftime with Daniel Carlson making his 41^st consecutive attempt — a 38-yarder with 45 seconds to go in this case — but so did the Jaguars.

Las Vegas leads Jacksonville 20-10. Ameer Abdullah nearly caught a touchdown pass on the play before Carlson’s field goal but the underthrown pass from Derek Carr went off his fingertips in the end zone.

Carr has mostly been on point otherwise, completing 16 of 21 passes for 223 yards and two touchdowns. Both scores went to Davante Adams, who’s having his biggest outing as a Raider with nine catches for 146 yards in the first half.

Jacksonville went 49 yards in 42 seconds to set up their field goal, a 44-yarder from Riley Patterson. The Jaguars will get the ball to start the second half.

Jaguars show some life

The Raiders won’t go from getting shut out to shutting out an opponent.

It might have looked like a possibility for a while but the Jaguars’ offense awoke on their fourth drive where they took the ball 75 yards on 10 plays for a touchdown to make the score 17-7. Both quarterback Trevor Lawrence and running back Travis Etienne had long running plays with the latter finishing with a 1-yard touchdown rush.

Las Vegas has dominated through the first 25 minutes of play, but Jacksonville has some fight left.

Davante Adams scores again

The Jaguars are focused on stopping the Raiders’ run game, and the road team is taking advantage by slicing up the home team through the air.

Derek Carr just threw his second touchdown pass of the afternoon to receiver Davante Adams, who was left wide open for a 38-yard score. That came after a drive where Daniel Carlson kicked in a 38-yard field goal.

It’s 17-0 Raiders led by seven catches and 126 receiving yards from Adams. Carr is having his best game of the season with 199 passing yards while completing 13 of 17 passes.

Davante Adams scores first

The Raiders needed to get Davante Adams more involved in the offense, so they’ve gotten Davante Adams more involved in the offense in the first quarter at TIAA Bank Stadium.

Adams just caught an over-the-shoulder pass from Derek Carr along the sidelines for a 25-yard touchdown to put the Raiders up 7-0 over the Jaguars. Las Vegas went three-and-out on its first possession, but got the ball back when Maxx Crosby dove on a Jacksonville fumble at the Raiders’ 30-yard line.

Adams took over from there. He’s already got six catches for 80 yards to put the Raiders in early position to bounce back from last week’s 24-0 loss to the Saints.

Darren Waller officially out again for Raiders

It’s a new week, same story for the Raiders’ injury situation.

They’ll be without two key starters today at TIAA Bank Field in tight end Darren Waller and linebacker Jayon Brown as both are out with hamstring injuries. Waller ran through a pregame workout routine on the field before being officialy ruled out again, though he was never expected to play.

The other two players who were listed as questionable on the latest injury report — linebacker Divine Deablo and defensive tackle Neil Farrell Jr. — were both out there as well and appear to be ready to play after not being included on the inactives list.

Farrell may perhaps even be in line for more snaps as defensive tackle Kendal Vickers was a surprise (presumably healthy) inclusion on the inactives list. Next to Waller, Brown and Vickers, the other inactives were running back Brittain Brown, tackle Jackson Barton and defensive end Tashawn Bower.

PREGAME

Like many coaches, the Las Vegas Raiders’ Josh McDaniels preaches that adversity can be used as an opportunity for a team to show its true colors.

He’s counting on Las Vegas displaying a great deal of perseverance today against Jacksonville in bouncing back from its low point of the season so far, a 24-0 blowout loss at New Orleans last week.

The Raiders weren’t good enough in any phase of the game, in McDaniels’ own words, and have spent the past week trying to correct their plethora of mistakes while practicing at IMG Academy in Sarasota, Fla.

A game against the Jaguars should present a bounce-back opportunity, as they might be the second-worst team the Raiders have faced all year.

Jacksonville has lost five straight, including an ugly 13-6 setback to the Houston Texans, widely considered the worst team in the NFL, last month. The Texans’ next game was against the Raiders, who pulled away to win 38-20 for their latest victory.

Favorable matchup: Raiders’ situational spot vs. Jaguars’ travel schedule

The Raiders set up shop in Sarasota as a way to avoid logging hundreds of unnecessary air miles. The Jaguars don’t have the same luxury. Jacksonville played in London last week, losing 21-17 to the Denver Broncos. Teams coming off international games have traditionally underperformed the following week, leading the NFL to allow them to take their bye if they choose to do so. Jacksonville passed on the opportunity, which could be seen as a curious decision considering it’s lost four straight following its annual London trip, including the only other time it opted against the bye. The Jaguars are confident in their sports science and training staffs, but so are the Raiders. Las Vegas’ players have spoken of the week in Sarasota as a welcomed change and a way to somewhat escape all the noise that’s accompanied their disappointing start to the season and disastrous loss in New Orleans.

Problematic matchup: Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr vs. Raiders’ defense

The Raiders’ biggest problem defensively against the Saints was containing All-Pro running back Alvin Kamara, who logged a combined 158 rushing and receiving yards along with three touchdowns. When Etienne came out of Clemson for the 2021 NFL Draft, the player he was most frequently compared to was Kamara. Etienne missed all of last year with a broken foot suffered in the preseason, but he’s started to live up to the promise that made him a first-round pick and second running back off the board (he was taken one spot behind Pittsburgh’s Najee Harris). He began the year as a passing-down back but has since taken over the featured role to the extent that the Jaguars traded away former starter James Robinson to the New York Jets. Las Vegas’ linebackers have played pretty well against the run, but they’ve regularly gotten lost in pass coverage. Kamara feasted on that weakness, and it seems likely the Jaguars will try to devise similar looks for their player equivalent in Etienne.

Gamebreaker: Tight end Foster Moreau

The fourth-year tight end might have been one of the only Raiders to get graded positively in the loss to the Saints, as he was a consistent safety valve for constantly-under-pressure quarterback Derek Carr. Moreau caught six passes for 31 yards in his second game back since suffering a knee injury in Week 3. He got extra snaps in front of his hometown New Orleans crowd when starter Darren Waller was a somewhat surprising scratch in the hours before kickoff. Waller looked on track to return from a hamstring injury all week, but the Raiders decided to rest him again after putting him through a pregame warm-up. Waller is likely to be on the same trajectory this week, but whether he plays or not, opportunities should be available for Moreau to continue making a difference in the passing game. The Raiders have plenty of “12 personnel” — offensive formations with two tight ends and one running back — in their playbook; they just haven’t been able to use it much this year with both Waller and Moreau missing time.

Big Number: 2nd

The Raiders are second in the league in first- and second-down rush efficiency, behind only the Cleveland Browns in expected points added per play. Las Vegas is one of just five teams that’s run the ball more effectively than passed it on early downs. Perhaps that’s why the one specific disappointment McDaniels has continually brought up out of the Saints game are penalties that put the Raiders “behind the sticks” on early downs. The calls made running the ball unfeasible. Las Vegas averaged a paltry 1.1 yards per play on first down against the Saints, their worst average in a game since 1998. Teams have started to get away from running more often on first-down in the modern NFL as data has helped illuminate the advantage of early aggression, but there are always exceptions. The strong play of Raiders running back Josh Jacobs this season appears to be one, and given McDaniels’ comments all week, it’s a fair bet the team wants to get back to handing him the ball as often as possible.

Best Bet (1-6): Davante Adams over 75.5 receiving yards

McDaniels and Carr are rightfully taking a lot of heat for not getting their star receiver involved enough in the offense against the Saints, as Adams had two touches for two yards. The last time something like this happened, after back-to-back losses to the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans in which Adams had a total of 48 receiving yards, Las Vegas responded with an Adams-heavy game plan. Adams had 13 targets in a 32-23 Week 4 against Denver that he turned into nine catches for 101 yards. Opponents have been double-teaming Adams all year, but the Jaguars don’t have enough defensive back talent, aside from second-year cornerback Tyson Campbell, to match Adams. He should bounce back with a big game. His over 5.5 receptions may also be worth a look, but the yards might be safer as the Raiders haven’t thrown many short, high-percentage passes to Adams all year.