There's no question that the final minute of the Patriots' 30-24 loss to the Raiders has received a ton of attention:
- Keelan Cole's catch and the officiating decision
- The Disas-teral. Meyers' Remorse. Viva Loss Vegas. Hail Moron ... whatever you want to call it.
All valid. Those sequences ultimately decided the game.
But lost in all the commotion was something else that helped decide a game between two middling teams, and helps to illustrate how the Patriots have lost their way under Bill Belichick — besides the well-worn path to the offensive coaches (we're trying here): Josh McDaniels' Raiders owned the Patriots situationally and special teams — two areas that would win this game for the Patriots of yesteryear, no matter what happened on offense or on a fluke final play.
Look, we're not going to sit here and say the Raiders, in McDaniels' first year with entirely new schemes, are some example of a well-coached outfit at this point in time, not with 13 penalties for 90 yards, including two delay of game infractions and three false starts — even McDaniels would admit that.
But the Patriots did get outcoached and out-executed in the margins, and that was almost as stunning as the final result.
Consider:
- The Raiders scored in the last minute of both halves;
- On drives before halftime, and out of it, the Patriots totaled two first downs, punted twice and ran 10 plays for a total of 47 yards.
- The Raiders were 2 of 2 in the red zone, 1 for 1 in goal to go, 2 for 2 in short yardage, 1 for 1 on 4th down, 6 of 15 on 3rd/4th downs (40%).
- Patriots were 0 for 1 in the red zone, 0 for 1 in goal to go (against a defense that had allowed 32 straight TDs in that situation), 2 of 13 on 3rd down (15.4%)
- Vegas stopped New England 3-and-out in 4-minute defense.
- Basically shut down Matthew Judon (no official stats), while Maxx Crosby had 4 tackles, 3 QB hits.
- Patriots had zero production in their screen game.
- Marcus Jones had a total of 25 yards on three punt returns (1 downed, 2 out of bounds). Ameer Abdullah averaged 22.2 yards on kickoffs.
- Raiders downed a punt at the 2, blocked a punt and almost blocked another.
- Matthew Slater and Brendon Schooler — who the Raiders gameplanned for — did not have a special teams tackle despite a season-high nine returns by the Raiders (punt and kickoff).
- Raiders won time of possession, 33:16 to 26:44.
"Really battled them in the kicking game, which we knew was going to be a challenge," McDaniels said the day after the game. ''So, at the end of the day, it comes down to turnovers. It kind of ended up even at the end of the day on it, and then situational football. We were able to put it in the red zone, and keep them out, and obviously be able to stop them in the four-minute defense, get the ball back, and then able to put together a two-minute drive there to tie it. So, all those things are huge, and they ultimately, create the result. So, fortunate enough that we made just enough plays to win."
Even without the ridiculous final play ... this was really a tight game that was probably headed for overtime. In those cases, the little situational stuff that doesn't get talked about very much ends up deciding a game like this.
It used to be a given the Patriots would come ahead in those instances. Even that's not the case anymore, and that's surprising as anything this season.
Here are the positional ratings against the Raiders:
OFFENSE
Quarterback (1.5 out of 5)
There's a lot of things wrong with this offense, but you can't miss two wide-open throws to Jonnu Smith in the end zone and Jakobi Meyers in the left seam. Jones was truly poor in the first half, as he was also responsible for two penalties (Smith false start, delay of game) and made a poor decision 3rd and 11 when he went to Hunter Henry short and had Meyers open. Jones also should have done better on the double fake screen (which was directly ripped off from the 49ers). Yes, Matt Patricia called it against the wrong defense (zone instead of man) and Henry was not open, but Jones could have done better than a 4-yard loss to Rhamondre Stevenson. ... Jones did have three plus throws in this game: 21-yarder to Tyquan Thornton, 13-yarder to Smith and a throw to Thornton where the receiver stepped out of bounds again.
Running backs (2.5 out of 5)
Patriots, against this terrible defense that has no DTs or LBs, should have pounded the run and used the Browns gameplan from the get-go. They finally went to it in the second half, but it was almost too late. ... Stevenson had really good production, but he struggled on two screens again, and had two other poor pass routes. He doesn't show much timing or feel for that. He's not the only one. ... Pierre Strong's speed and cutback ability is very impressive on film. Kevin Harris runs hard, but his vision isn't developed at this point.
Receivers (1.5 out of 5)
At this point in the season, I'm starting to question how good of a coach Troy Brown is. Great Patriot and love the guy personally, but there are so many route-running issues on this team, there appears to be zero attention to detail. The first two outs of the game — which live looked like just bad throws from Jones — were actually bad routes by Thornton and Meyers. Both, instead of running in a straight line to the sideline, faded 3-4 yards. Jones threw the ball where they should have run. That's on the receivers. ... Also another three drops from this group (Agholor, Kendrick Bourne, Henry). ... It's absolutely ridiculous that Thornton, who obviously doesn't know how to run his routes properly, played 60 snaps and Bourne only got 11 when he's clearly a favorite of the QB.
Offensive line (2.5 out of 5)
I would say this was a decent performance from this group. Crosby didn't go nuts in this game — they threw a ton of resources at him — and Chandler Jones barely did anything (that's the norm for him against anyone). ... Andrews and Onwenu dominated inside against a poor Raiders group. ... Cole Strange struggled more than I thought he would. ... Why is Connor McDermott playing over Yodny Cajuste, a former third-round pick who has been active? What does that say about player development? Maybe Cajuste can't make it through a full game, but it's very strange. ... Trent Brown has not been great over the past month.
DEFENSE
Defensive line (4 out of 5)
The Raiders, who were already bad at RT, had to play most of this game with two guards that weren't in the league at one point — that really limited what the Raiders could do with their running game and drop-back passing in the second half. Patriots dominated a poor group overall, which they should. The only reason I didn't give them a perfect rating was because of the lack of impactful pass rush, especially from Judon. ... I was more impressed by Josh Uche in this game than his others because Kolten Miller is a legit LT and Uche's burst was really good. ... Lawrence Guy's best game of the season. ... Christian Barmore looked terrific in his return. Can't wait to see him with more snaps.
Linebackers (3 out of 5)
Good game from Ja'Whaun Bentley, as he was impactful in the pass rush. .... Jahlani Tavai struggled a bit against the run, which surprised me. This was his kind of opponent.
Secondary (2.5 out of 5)
Patriots basically doubled Davante Adams at all times, and Derek Carr was not good in this game. He missed a lot of chances down the field. ... This game was basically Kyle Dugger's career — breathtaking pick-6 play, struggled in some big spots down the stretch just because his fundamentals broke down. ... The playcall on Dugger's TD was terrible — no deep safety help in middle of the field — and Devin McCourty was understandably irate on the sideline after the play. ... Jonathan Jones was really lucky that Carr missed two deep passes against him in the fourth quarter. ... Marcus Jones was really good, until the final play. Impressive kid. Wish he was bigger.
FIVE UP
Josh Uche: Now you can start getting excited about him. This was legit.
Christian Barmore: No one's talking about him, but I thought he was excellent.
Mike Onwenu: Absolutely dominating.
Lawrence Guy: Owned a bad matchup.
David Andrews: Controlled the middle again.
FIVE DOWN
Tyquan Thornton: He's having a serious route-running issue.
Jonathan Jones: Getting a little boom and bust-y. Mack Hollins beat him quite a few times.
Cole Strange: Has some serious breakdowns in each game.
Mac Jones: Can't miss those wide-open passes and blow your top. I don't care if Bozo The Clown is your coach.
Jakobi Meyers: The final play just can't happen.