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FOXBOROUGH - Yeah, these really were the 0-2 Raiders with the worst run defense in the league and a team which "sucks" as per their future Hall of Fame cornerback.
The Patriots, 14-point favorites at home against the Oakland Raiders, had an easy win staring them in the face, and played exactly like it. Both teams spent the afternoon spitting the bit in the red area, but in the end an interception off of a muffed pass catch gave the Patriots a 16-9 win at Gillette Stadium on Sunday. You expect the Raiders, led by rookie quarterback Derek Carr, susceptible to not finishing drives against a supposed elite team on the road. But the Patriots are still horribly out of sync on offense, and one has to wonder if this Patriot team is really a Super Bowl contender like everyone thought they would be over the summer.
To their credit, the Raiders devised the perfect offensive game plan for Carr, the second round draft pick out of Fresno State. Carr bedeviled the Patriots all game long with short passes that took very little time to develop, not that dissimilar to the quick screen-oriented offense he ran out at Fresno. The Patriots helped out a great deal by giving Carr all day to throw much of the time, and had zero sacks of Carr.
What did the Raiders in in the end was an inability to finish drives, and Sebastian Janikowski nailed all three of his field goal attempts for the Raiders' scoring on the afternoon. The game-sealing interception was not Carr's fault, but the game still goes in the books as a loss for the Raiders. It was a game the Raiders could have stolen from the Patriots, but they are still far away from being the kind of team that can finish what would have been a titanic road upset.
Now, for the Patriots. The offense is still way off kilter. Scoring 16 points at home against the worst run defense in the league is hardly awe-inspiring.
Tom Brady trusts only Julian Edelman. Stevan Ridley could have bucked for 150 yards rushing against this team. The offensive line is still a mess. Rob Gronkowski dropped a touchdown pass. Brady was sacked twice, once by familiar Super Bowl foe Justin Tuck.
In all, the Patriots are fortunate that they happened to draw two of the lower-tier teams in the NFL following their season opening loss at Miami. Oakland is not the kind of team that can take these offensive shortcomings by the Patriots and exploit them.
The Patriots did not score until 4:14 left in the first half. On their opening possession, Brady misfired on short passes to Brandon LaFell and Shane Vereen and went three and out. The second possession featured five runs and two passes, but died thanks to a holding call on rookie Cameron Fleming.
Finally on the third drive, Brady gave the fans hope that an easy win over a bad team would be in the offing. A 15-play, 70-yard drive featured four completions to Edelman for 33 yards. A fifth ball thrown to Edelman resulted in a pass interference call on Tarell Brown which was more of an inducement by Edelman than an over-aggressive play by Brown. Gronkowski scored on a six-yard touchdown pass on a crossing route with linebacker Kaluka Maiava in futile pursuit.
The next drive, the last of the first half, seemed like a second easy touchdown drive. With first down and goal at the 5-yard line, Ridley was stopped at the 2, then Vereen was stuffed for no gain. With eight seconds left, Brady tried to take one quick shot at the end zone. He muffed the low snap and wound up throwing the ball away to avoid a sack. Stephen Gostkowski, who matched Janikowski field goal for field goal, nailed a 21-yarder to make it 10-3 Patriots at the half.
The first two drives were impacted by linebacker Khalil Mack. He stuffed Ridley for a three-yard loss on the first drive which was finished off by a sack of Brady by Tuck. Jordan Devey allowed the sack and looked just like Logan Mankins in his two Super Bowl appearances in doing so. Mack killed the next drive by beating Fleming off the line of scrimmage and pressuring Brady into a throwaway.
The next two drives for the Patriots resulted in field goals, but the first one resembled the last drive of the first half in that the drive stalled just short of the goal line. Facing first and goal at the Oakland 2, Vereen was stopped for a one-yard gain. On second down, Brady found Gronkowski open in the back of the end zone. Woodson managed to tip the ball slightly, but the ball still found its way to Gronkowski. He suddenly grew a pair of stone fingers and dropped the ball. Brady tried to hit Danny Amendola at the pylon on third down but led him too far, and Gostkowski hit his second short field goal, from 20 yards to make it 13-9 Patriots.
Brady began to find a rhythm on the next drive, hitting Edelman on a touch pass for 15 yards, Gronkowski over the middle for 22 yards, then hit Vereen and LaFell on flat passes for 12 yards each on consecutive plays. The drive died at the Oakland 17 when Miles Burris dropped a pick and Brady underthrew LaFell in the left flat. Gostkowski completed the scoring with a 36-yard field goal.
 Vince Wilfork sealed the Patriot win over Oakland with an interception in the final minute. (USA TODAY Images) |
But then the Raiders showed their inability to close out the game. McFadden burst off tackle for 6 yards and a tying touchdown, but the play was nullified when Gabe Jackson was called for holding. On the next play, Carr, with all day to throw, was able to find Demarius Moore on a crossing route. Moore sidestepped Rob Ninkovich and took the pass thrown right between his number one and seven. But the ball deflected up in the air and was picked off by Vince Wilfork to seal the win. The Raiders had the game tied up with a minute to go, but a penalty and interception took away the chance at overtime.
Carr finished 21 of 34 passing for 174 yards. The pick, which wasn't Carr's fault, and no touchdown passes brought his rating down to 62.6. McFadden had 59 yards rushing and led the Raiders with four receptions (Jones had the most yardage with 43 yards receiving). Brady was 24 of 37 passing for 234 yards and a touchdown and a 91.5 rating. Ridley and Vereen both averaged under three yards per carry against the worst rush defense in the league.
The Patriots will take the win, and now have an extra day to prepare for Kansas City. Sooner or later, the Patriots will need to debug the offense, synch up Brady with all of his receivers, and to sort out the offensive line and get some sort of cohesion.
As Al Davis used to say, "Just win, baby!" For the Raiders, it's still more of the other guy doing that than them.
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