Winless Oakland Raiders Are Improving, but Still Beating Themselves

The 0-7 Oakland Raiders were huge underdogs Sunday in Seattle against the defending Super Bowl champion Seahawks. It was 24-3 by halftime because the Raiders made mistake after mistake after mistake—as expected.

Then something changed in the third quarter. Perhaps the Seahawks relaxed a little bit, but the Raiders made a game of it before falling 30-24 to move to 0-8 on the season.

The Raiders may still be winless, but they proved Sunday they are not content to wither on the vine. No one is going to mistake the Raiders for a good team, but they’re improving. If they can stop beating themselves, they just may win a game or two in 2014.

In the first half, the Raiders beat themselves with big mistakes. They had three turnovers and two penalties that directly or indirectly resulted in all 24 of Seattle’s points. When the Raiders had an opportunity to score, they left points on the field.

The Raiders had to settle for a field goal after not being able to convert on 3rd-and-3 from Seattle’s 30 on the first drive of the game. Convert the short third down and the Raiders had a chance to take a 7-0 lead instead of 3-0 lead. At the end of the half, kicker Sebastian Janikowski missed a 51-yard field goal.

That’s hypothetically seven points the Raiders left on the field in the first half to go along with the 24 they allowed.

Rookie quarterback Derek Carr threw two interceptions on back-to-back drives in the first half that resulted in 10 of Seattle’s points. Linebacker Bruce Irvin made a great play on one of the interceptions, tipping the ball to himself and returning it for a touchdown.

Cornerback D.J. Hayden didn’t help things with defensive pass interference and taunting penalties in the first half. Both plays put the Seahawks in position to score points, and they capitalized with two touchdowns.

Quarter	Situation	Result
1	3rd-and-3 on SEA 30	Incomplete Pass, Janikowski FG
1	2nd-and-4 on OAK 42	DPI on Hayden to the OAK 6
1	1st-and-10 on OAK 27	Carr Pass Intercepted by Irvin, Returned for TD
2	3rd-and-5 on OAK 25	Carr Pass Intercepted by Sherman
2	Kickoff	Carrie Fumbles
2	2nd-and-3 on SEA 47	Taunting on Hayden to OAK 34
2	1st-and-10 on SEA 32	Janikowski Misses 51-yard field goal
3	3rd-and-7 on SEA 36	Hayden Drops Would-Be Interception for TD
3	3rd-and-3 on SEA 46	Holding on T. Brown
4	4th-and-4 on OAK 26	Baldwin 38-yard punt return
4	3rd-and-10 on OAK 47	Wilson scrambes for 19 yards
4	3rd-and-5 on OAK 37	Carr throws incomplete for Holmes
4	2nd-and-13 from SEA 34	Hayden Drops Interception

Other mistakes didn’t hurt as badly, but easily could have if not for good defensive play. Rookie cornerback T.J. Carrie fumbled a kickoff return in the first half that didn’t result in any points for the Seahawks, but only because the defense yielded just three yards on three plays and the Seahawks missed a 46-yard field goal.

The play of the defense was one of the bright spots for the Raiders, limiting quarterback Russell Wilson to just 179 yards passing and 5.1 yards per attempt and running back Marshawn Lynch to just 67 rushing yards and 3.2 yards per carry. Lynch did add 76 receiving yards and two touchdowns, but the Raiders limited Seattle to 38 percent on third downs and just 4.4 yards per offensive play—1.5 yards lower than their season average to this point.

After falling behind 24-3, the mistakes in the second half were much less glaring, but the missed opportunities still killed any hope the Raiders had at winning the game. The Raiders allowed just six points in the second half, but that turned out to be too much.

Hayden dropped a would-be interception he would’ve returned for a touchdown. He was just lucky that on the next play, defensive end Denico Autry blocked a punt and wide receiver Brice Butler recovered it for a touchdown.

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

A defensive holding penalty on Tarell Brown on 3rd-and-3 kept a drive alive for the Seahawks. On the next play, running back Marshawn Lynch caught a pass and rumbled 39 yards before Oakland’s defense could make a stop and force a field goal.

A 38-yard punt return the Raiders allowed in the fourth quarter featured several missed tackles and set up the second Seattle field goal. The defense then allowed quarterback Russell Wilson to scramble for 19 yards on 3rd-and-10 moments later, which put the Seahawks at Oakland’s 28.

Hayden dropped a second interception that would have given the ball to the Raiders at their own 46, but it only cost them 10 yards, a timeout and 29 seconds of clock time. The Raiders even had a chance to recover the onside kick that was briefly loose at the end of the game and would’ve had nearly two minutes to drive for the game-winning touchdown.

Despite a plethora of mistakes and missed opportunities in the game, the team played well in the second half and nearly came back from a 21-point deficit. The defense forced four punts and held the Seahawks to two field goals. The special teams blocked a punt for a touchdown and had two long punt returns that gave the offense good field position.

The offense used that field position to score two touchdowns. Carr atoned for two earlier interceptions with two touchdown passes to tight end Mychal Rivera and spread the ball around to nine different receivers thanks in part to his 41 pass attempts.

The Raiders played exceptionally well in the second half, but their mistakes in the first half just left them no margin for error. A long punt return and a few key third-down conversions on both sides of the ball were simply too much because of the hole the Raiders dug themselves.

Looking at the big picture, the Raiders are getting better each week despite the mistakes and missed opportunities. The Raiders were a lot closer to making the plays necessary to get a win on Sunday than they have been all season in arguably their most difficult road game.  

Week	Opponent	Opp. Win %	Point Differential	Yardage Differential	Turnover Margin
Week	Opponent	Opp. Win %	Point Differential	Yardage Difference	Turnover Margin
1	at Jets	0.111	-5	-244	2
2	Texans	0.444	-16	37	-4
3	at Patriots	0.778	-7	-56	-1
4	Dolphins (London)	0.625	-24	-118	-1
Total W1-4		0.486	-52	-381	-4
Average W1-4		~4—5 Team	-13	-95.25	-1
5	Chargers	0.556	-3	-27	-1
6	Cardinals	0.875	-11	-145	1
7	at Browns	0.625	-10	81	-3
8	at Seahawks	0.625	-6	-100	-3
Total W5-9		0.667	-30	-191	-6
Average W5-9		6—3 Team	-7.5	-47.75	-1.5

"This thing is starting to turn,” interim head coach Tony Sparano said after the game via Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle. “We're playing better and better."

The Raiders’ opponents outscored them by 13 points per game over their first four games. The combined winning percentage of those teams right now is .486—roughly equal to a 4-5 team. Since head coach Dennis Allen was fired after Week 4, there has been an uptick in the competitiveness of the team.

Since Sparano took over, the Raiders’ opponents have outscored them by just seven points per game. The combined winning percentage of those teams right now is .667—or equal to a 6-3 team. The Raiders’ opponents have also outgained them by half as many yards over the last four games as they did in the first four games (381 yards versus 191 yards).

If the Raiders can cut back on the mistakes, capitalize on a few of their missed opportunities and muster some type of running game, they could play spoiler to plenty of teams in the second half. The Raiders play just one team with a record below .500 the rest of the way, so they’ll certainly have a chance to crush playoff dreams.

“They kind of scratched and punched and got ourselves back in the game,” Sparano said after the game via Raiders.com. “There’s probably going to be a lot of positive things we can take from this with the exception of the outcome, which again, nobody wants to hear, and I don’t blame them.”

It’s a step in the right direction, which is all the Raider Nation can realistically ask for at this point. The Raiders are 0-8, but with the development of the young talent on the roster and the way the team played in the second half Sunday in Seattle, there remains hope for the future.