London is a brilliant city. But it’s just as well the Raiders keep away. Sunday the Silver & Black took to the pitch at Wembley stadium for a football match with the Seattle Seahawks. The 12th man had a strong presence at Wembley despite it being labeled as a ‘home’ game for the Raiders Youth Donald Penn Jersey , replete with provided Raider Nation flags for the crowd. The Raiders didn’t give them any reason to wave those flags in this game.The Seahawks came out firing, moving the ball down the field with ease. The Raiders came out flat, getting nowhere on the ground and under attack through the air. The game was over by halftime for the second week in a row. And by the started of the fourth quarter, the Seahawks lead was at 27-0.For a travesty such as this, there needed to be a twist on the usual weekly format. Instead of Ballers – for which there were none -- & Busters, in British style, this week will be called simply鈥ollocksJon GrudenWhat was considered a potentially competitive team with some promise in the offseason is an empty shell now. The luster wore off when Gruden traded Khalil Mack prior to the opener, and the tarnish from the first few weeks has now turned to an aggressive rust. The Raiders are crumbling.Gruden doesn’t seem to know how to use Marshawn Lynch. He goes from not giving him the ball at the goal line last week to forcing it to him on the first three plays for a net of one yard.Derek Carr was supposed to return to his 2016 MVP level play under the tutelage of QB mastermind Gruden. He has looked as bad as he has ever looked in his career, adding league leader in interceptions to his resume. He didn’t have one in this game, but threw for just 142 yards with 140 of those yards coming after the catch. Last week he was too aggressive. This week, he’s back to dinks and dunks.Hard to blame Carr for all the quick passes with the protection issues the Raiders are having. He was sacked six times in this game. That’s ridiculous. From day one Gruden has forced top pick tackle Kolton Miller into action. First forcing Donald Penn to play out of place at right tackle, and now despite a knee injury that is clearly making him a complete liability. It was entirely irresponsible to put this team in the position where their best options at tackle are a small school third round rookie at one tackle spot and an injured project rookie at left tackle.The pass defense has been the worst in football. They can’t find any pass rush since trading away the best pass rusher in the league Womens Reggie Nelson Jersey , and the only answer Gruden and Guenther can come up with is to bench Gareon Conley and Rashaan Melvin. The corners are all struggled because they can’t do it alone. They can’t follow the receivers forever while the quarterback stands around scanning the field as long as he likes. At one point in this game, Russell Wilson fumbled the snap and had time to chase down the ball, reset, step up and throw a touchdown pass. He was never threatened.A team that should be showing improvement each week under a new head coach has regressed week after week. Their loss last week to the Chargers was their worst of the season when they most needed to show something. That terrible performance led to a much worse one. Even with a bye week and three 1-win teams in the next four games, there is little reason to hope they can be any more competitive even against those teams.Kolton MillerThe second week in a row Miller has given up three sacks. Technically, he gave up four sacks, but one was wiped away due to a facemask penalty. Yeah, he shouldn’t be playing with his injury, but he is. And as such, his performance is judge. It was terrible. His first sack allowed was a strip sack. He had a great chance to fall on the fumble, but blew it. The Seahawks recovered at the Raiders 24 and scored their second touchdown in three plays. To begin the second half, Miller gave up two sacks in a row. The second was another strip sack at the Raiders’ 11-yard-line and the field goal gave the Seahawks a 20-0 lead.Derek CarrHis longest pass went for 21 yards and it was a dump to Jalen Richard who got almost all those yards after the catch. Carr also threw low for Amari Cooper over the middle allowing him to hit hard and knocked out of the game Youth Marshawn Lynch Jersey , behind Jordy Nelson on third and six with room to scramble for the first down. And of course, though he didn’t throw a pick, he had two fumbles.Tahir WhiteheadOn the Seahawks’ first drive alone, Whitehead was blocked on a 24-yard screen, called for holding in the end zone to put them in first and goal at the one, and then gave up the 5-yard touchdown catch. He has six tackles, but was basically a non-factor.Jon Feliciano, Justin MurrayFeliciano only played for a couple drives before leaving with a rib injury. In that time he gave up a tackle for loss on third down, was flagged for holding that called back a 28-yard catch by Amari Cooper, and gave up a pressure leading to an incompletion. Murray replaced him and it isn’t entirely his fault because he is the team’s backup tackle who was asked to step into the guard position two weeks ago. Murray’s first drive in the game, he gave up the sack on third down to end the scoring chance and back up the offense seven yards where Matt McCrary missed the 48-yard attempt. His next drive, he gave up a hit on Carr followed by not getting in place to block on a screen play that was stopped for no gain. Carr was sacked twice on his final possession and Murray gave up one of those sacks.Daryl WorleyGave up 3 catches for 100 yards and a touchdown. He had an interception off a deflection from Erik Harris.Johnny TownsendTownsend had two horrible punts in this game of 28 and 27 yards. His other punt traveled 37 yards to give him an average of 30.7 yards per punt.Honorable MentionArden Key – Got his first sack as a pro. He also had a run stop and a pressure on third and 7 to hold them to a field goal in the third quarter.Jalen Richard – Led the team with 7 catches for 48 yards including a 21-yard catch and run on third and 20.Follow @LeviDamien The Bye is over so now it’s back to the grind of this 2018 NFL season. This game against the Indianapolis Colts in Oakland started out with the Raiders kicking off to the Colts. Indianapolis showed off why they are leading the league in 3rd down conversion percentages with 3 of them on their drive. They eventually scored with an absurd 1 handed touchdown catch by former basketball player Mo Allie-Cox. The opening drive score made it 7-0 Indianapolis.Oakland’s offense went 3 and out on their opening drive after Jordy Nelson slipped on the 3rd down play. Again the Raiders defense just could not stop Andrew Luck and the Colts offense without giving up points. They did finally stop them on a 3rd down play though when they knocked down a pass on 3rd and 2 in the red zone. It was Luck’s first incomplete pass of the day and forced an Adam Vinatieri field goal to make the score 10-0 Colts. The field goal from Vinatieri tied Morton Anderson’s all-time NFL points record so just one more point from the man who won the Tuck Rule game for the Patriots and he will have scored more points than anybody else in NFL history.The Raiders narrowly avoided a second straight 3 and out but Derek Carr managed to throw a first down pass to a double covered Jared Cook while the pocket collapsed on top of him. The great play kickstarted the Oakland offense as they got a nice receiver screen to Brandon Lafell for a 1st down Womens Derek Carr Jersey , followed by another first down by Dwayne Harris and then got their touchdown on a 31 yard pass down the seems to a wide open Seth Roberts on the next play after that. The touchdown made the score 10-7 Colts.Indy’s offense went no where on their next drive thanks to Raiders cornerback Gareon Conley. He came up with a big pass deflection to force a 3 and out from Indy so the Colts had to use their punter for the first time of the game. That got the ball back to the Raiders offense who continued their strong momentum from the last drive. They went 69 yards in 7 plays and scored on another pass down the seam, this one a 25 yarder to Jared Cook. That touchdown gave the Raiders the lead 14-10 after starting the game down 10-0.Unfortunately the Colts brilliantly switched up their game plan and proceeded to gash the Raiders repeatedly with the run game. The Raiders defense came up big in the red zone again though to force another Colts field goal. The chip shot field goal made the score 14-13 and set the All-Time points record for Adam Vinatieri. The Raiders kneeled out the remaining clock so Oakland went into the locker room with that 14-13 lead.Oakland got the ball first in the 2nd half and their offense was still clicking better than we’ve seen from them almost all season. This drive featured 4 straight 1st down plays (catches by Lafell and Seth Roberts, followed by first down runs from Doug Martin and Jalen Richard) which helped them get into the red zone very quickly. They capped off the play yard drive with a 4th and goal QB sneak by Derek Carr for his first ever (How the hell did it take so long?!?) rushing touchdown. The play was originally ruled short but was overturned on review and made the score 21-13.Indianapolis once again took advantage of the Raiders porous run defense with a 49 yard run to start out their next drive. They scored on 3rd down after that on another ridiculous jumping catch from a tight end. This time it was Eric Ebron on a 20 yard reception for the TD on the 4 play, 75 yard drive. They went for 2 and got it on a wide receiver screen to tie the game at 21. The Oakland offense wasn’t bothered by the Colts quick score though, they kept their hot streak going again. They slashed right through the Indy defense with a mix of runs and passes that included a 30 yarder to Jared Cook followed by an 11 yard Doug Martin run on the next play to get down to the Indianapolis 11. They got their touchdown on 3rd down after that on a pass to Brandon Lafell with Carr getting away from two defenders to throw the dart to Lafell. The touchdown gave the Raiders the lead again at 28-21.Back and forth we go though because the Raiders defense just can not get off the field without giving up points. The biggest play on the drive was a 34 yard completion to T.Y. Hilton on a 1st and 20 play down to the Oakland 15. They got their touchdown on a 3rd and goal run through the middle of the defense right after Erik Harris dropped an interception in the end zone the play before. The touchdown run from Marlon Mack tied the game once again, 28-28.The back and forth ended on the Raiders next drive along with Derek Carr’s 17 straight pass completions. Unfortunately that streak ended on a 3rd down pass that Carr just lofted over the receivers head. Making things worse, Johnny Townsend did yet another dud of a punt in his terrible rookie season, this one only netted 24 yards after a nasty bounce backwards on the kick. The Colts started at their own 43 yard line and quickly decimated the Raiders defense for another TD to retake the lead 35-28. This TD was an NFL record 3rd different TE of the Colts to score, this time it was Jack Doyle. Doyle had 4 catches for 52 yards and the TD on the drive.The first play of the Raiders next drive Doug Martin fumbled the ball and Indianapolis recovered it at the Oakland 28 with 5:16 left in the 4th. They took advantage of the turnover and eventually scored on another goal line touchdown run from Marlon Mack.That made the score 42-28 Indianapolis, they have out scored Oakland 21-0 in the 4th quarter. The Raiders got the ball back with 3 minutes to go but down 2 touchdowns. They couldn’t get in rhythm on the drive and turned the ball over on downs back to the Colts. Indianapolis then ran out the rest of the clock with Jon Gruden choosing not to use his 2 remaining timeouts to delay the inevitable. Raiders lose 42-28.
