The death march that is the Las Vegas Raiders season continues with another installment, this one at home against the Dallas Cowboys. No one’s talking about resurrecting quarterback Geno Smith, and with each passing game it looks more and more like the Raiders will move on from the embattled quarterback.
The same might apply to coach Pete Carroll, offensive coordinator and the rest of the Raiders staff, but at the moment they’re all still standing, save for special teams coordinator Tom McMahon, and he’s probably better off not having to watch the brand of football that Las Vegas is playing.
That brand varies from inept to inconsistent from week to week, and Dallas will pose a different set of challenges.They have a high-octane, powerful offense with quarterback Dak Prescott at the helm, and that unit is better than the Jacksonville Jaguars unit that took off in the second half and eventually outlasted the Raiders, 30-29, when a failed two-point conversion attempt cost Las Vegas the chance to send the game into overtime.
There’s nothing to suggest that the Raiders will be able to keep up in this one, other than the law of unpredictability that applies when two bad teams play. The Raiders have become experts at shooting themselves in the foot, to it will be intriguing to see how they find a way to do that in this one.
One variable in this one is the mental state of the Cowboys. They’re still dealing with the tragic suicide of defensive end Marshawn Kneeland, which makes it tough to play a game, much less perform well in one.
Other than that, this one looks like a mismatch. The Raiders have two top-shelf receivers, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, and as ESPN pointed out in its game focus story this week, the Raiders secondary has allowed the fourth-most receptions in the league. Pickens has averaged eight targets per game, with Lamb getting nine, and there’s no reason for that to change on Monday night.
Dallas’s offensive line is also highly rated; they’re rated ninth in the league when it comes to pass block win rate. Expect the Cowboys to score in the high twenties or low thirties given all this, so it will be up to Smith and company to keep up.
That’s not the real question here, though. The big uncertainty surrounding the Raiders is how many more games it will take owner Mark Davis to pull the plug on Pete Carroll’s comeback. Many observers are surprised that Carroll still has a job, but if the Raiders get routed the odds of Davis making a move go up accordingly.