DENVER — The Las Vegas Raiders’ issues run much deeper than quarterback.
To be clear, coach Antonio Pierce made the right call in benching quarterback Gardner Minshew II in the third quarter. Early on, Minshew looked great. He completed his first nine passes for 115 yards and a touchdown. It was shaping up to be his best game of the season — until he had a complete meltdown.
With a 10-3 lead and the ball at the Denver Broncos’ 5-yard line in the second quarter, the Raiders were set to extend their lead when tight end Brock Bowers flashed open on a short route into the left flat. A touchdown would’ve put the Raiders ahead by 14 points, but as Minshew rolled out, he overthrew Bowers badly.
A 100 YARD PICK 6!! @PatSurtainll pic.twitter.com/Xh3CG05U9J
— NFL (@NFL) October 6, 2024
Denver cornerback Patrick Surtain II leaped, intercepted the ball and returned it 100 yards for a touchdown. That score continued a 34-0 run by the Broncos that ultimately doomed the Raiders to a 34-18 loss Sunday.
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“I killed our momentum with a pick six,” Minshew said afterward. “At the end of the day, I didn’t do a good enough job to give us a shot to be competitive in the game. That’s on me.”
Following the interception, Minshew went on to complete just three passes over the next five drives, taking two terrible sacks and throwing another miserable interception with the Raiders trailing by 10 in the third quarter. With Minshew spiraling, Pierce turning to backup Aidan O’Connell made sense.
But things didn’t get any better for the Raiders offense. After the defense forced a punt to keep the deficit at 10, O’Connell proceeded to swiftly go three-and-out. And on the first play following a touchdown drive by the Broncos to further pad their lead, O’Connell overthrew a pass intended for Bowers that was deflected and picked off by Surtain.
Tip drill. 👐
📺: FOX | @PatSurtainll pic.twitter.com/uaO3d78XnC
— Denver Broncos (@Broncos) October 6, 2024
“We just stopped playing complementary football,” O’Connell said. “I think we have a group of guys who want to look in the mirror, hold each other accountable, hold themselves accountable and try to get better.”
Outside of a garbage-time scoring drive, the Raiders looked just as anemic on offense with O’Connell under center. That’s because both he and Minshew are below-average quarterbacks incapable of lifting a deeply flawed offense.
In his postgame news conference, Pierce declined to name a starter going forward.
“I don’t know,” Pierce said when asked who would start against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 6. “I don’t have an answer for that one yet.”
Barring wholesale improvement from the offense, it won’t matter.
Receiver Davante Adams missed his second straight game due to a hamstring injury, and the six-time Pro Bowler has likely played his final snap for the franchise after requesting a trade Monday. While nothing is imminent, the Raiders have fielded calls from several teams. Adams could be medically cleared next week, thereby opening the door for a deal to get done.
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In the meantime, the Raiders have gotten an extended look at what life will be like without Adams, and the results haven’t been pretty. The passing offense was already underwhelming with Adams, but it doesn’t even look functional without him. In the last two games, the Raiders have completed just 59 percent of their passes for 331 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.
Receivers Jakobi Meyers and Tre Tucker have been solid, but they aren’t capable of replacing a singular talent like Adams. As impressive as Bowers has been — his 57-yard touchdown catch and run opened the scoring on Sunday — he isn’t, either.
In addition to being held back by the quarterback play, the receivers have also been limited by shoddy pass protection. The offensive line has held up fine when the ball is thrown quickly, but the unit has struggled to give deeper passing concepts time to develop.
“We just weren’t consistent,” rookie guard Jackson Powers-Johnson said of the offensive line Sunday. “We didn’t execute. We hurt ourselves. You can’t do that.”
Offensive coordinator Luke Getsy has dialed up more short-to-intermediate passes to try to work around it. Eventually, though, things are bound to get stagnant if the offense can’t stretch the field vertically. And when the offense has tried to do so, things go downhill quickly.
Getsy has figured out the run game — the Raiders have averaged 4.9 yards per carry over the last two games after averaging a putrid 2.8 in their first three contests — but a path to creating a more dynamic pass game has escaped him. He may not be capable of finding one this season.
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If that’s the case, the Las Vegas defense must be much better. The offense put them in several tough spots against the Broncos, but they were also independently guilty of poor tackling, costly penalties and frequent coverage breakdowns.
The defense has fallen victim to a series of injuries this year. Defensive end Malcolm Koonce and safety Marcus Epps are out for the year, linebackers Divine Deablo and Luke Masterson missed Sunday’s game and defensive end Maxx Crosby is limited with a high ankle sprain. The Raiders suffered another setback with defensive tackle Christian Wilkins getting knocked out of the game in the second half with a foot injury. The severity of the injury is unknown, but if he misses time, the defense could sink even lower.
The Raiders are 2-3 and sit last in the AFC West. There are 12 games left to play and they’re only one game under .500, but their outlook feels bleak.
“You have no choice,” Crosby said when asked how he remains optimistic. “It’s about how you respond.”
The Raiders’ fan base is understandably short on patience. They’ve endured 22 years without a playoff win, and this doesn’t appear to be a situation where progress is going to come quickly.
This is a team in transition, not one particularly close to being ready to contend. That’s a sobering reality but, regardless of whether it’s Minshew or O’Connell starting at quarterback next week, it’s the one in which the Raiders are living.
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(Photo of Minshew: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)
