The Las Vegas Raiders have some fairly big problems to solve following their 25-24 loss to the Chicago Bears, but sometimes the devil’s in the details when it comes to close losses.
That was definitely the case for the Raiders in this game. The Bears blocked a last-second field goal attempt that would have won the game, and the key to the block may have been the “tell” provide by Raiders long snapper Jacob Bobenmoyer.
You may not recognize the name, but Chicago long snapper Scott Daly saw that Bobenmeyer occasionally moved the ball just before snapping it on point-after attempts and field goals, according to a piece written by Courtney Cronin of ESPN. Daly relayed that small detail to Bears cornerback Josh Blackwell, who used it to block Daniel Carlson’s 54-yard attempt.
"It's an incredible win, and that's just a testament to the team we have," Blackwell said. "I think we stacked a good week of practice and we kind of got this quote-unquote monkey off our back that we're not the 'same old Bears', we're different."
The Raiders definitely aren’t different when it comes to this sort of thing. It may seem obscure to fans and media, but Bobenmeyer’s tendency to shift the ball should have been picked up as part of the Raiders’ self-scouting process.
The fact that it didn’t speaks to the possible lack of detail in that process, which is surprising for a team coached by Pete Carroll. Special teams coach Tom McMahon has a reputation as one of the best in the business, and he’s been with the club for a while now, so it will be interesting to see what he and Carroll have to say about this in their mid-week comments to the media.
Self-scouting is an important part of excellence and improvement, and you have to wonder exactly what’s happening here. It doesn’t just happen during the bye week, either—ideally, it’s constant and ongoing, with tweaks and improvements happening in every game. Have the Raiders known about this issue and failed to address it, or were they just not aware of it?
Both possibilities indicate a potentially significant failure, but at least the problem will get taken care of for this week’s road game against the Indianapolis Colts. The Raiders are flailing right now, and they need all the help they can get if this game does come down to another long kick to decide the outcome.