On Sunday, the Raiders were six days removed from being the last remaining undefeated team in the AFC. Based on that. they seemed like they had no business losing this game. Then they went out and lost this game by two scores, going down 20-9 to the visiting Bears.
Ballers
LB Denzel Perryman
Perryman led the Raiders in tackles by a wide margin. Leading the team in tackles is not new for Perryman, he’s been doing it much of the season. This time most of those tackles came at or near the line of scrimmage and on a couple of occasions had a play get by him.
He made a run stuff on the second play of the game to help lead to a three-and-out by the Bears. The Bears would go on a touchdown drive late in the first, but Perryman did his part to try and stop it with two run stuffs for no gain, both in goal-to-go situations.
In the second quarter the Bears went on another TD drive, and again Perryman did his part to try and keep it from happening with three tackles and a pressure resulting in an incompletion. One of his tackles was for no gain in first and goal from the four-yard line.
The Raiders’ defense stopped the Bears on their first three drives of the second half and Perryman had a run stuff at or near the line on each of them. Their next drive in the fourth quarter ended with Perryman flying out into the left flat to fight through several blocks and blow up Justin Fields’s scramble attempt for minimal gain.
After the Raiders turned the ball over on downs, setting the Bears up in scoring range, Perryman made the last two tackles to hold them at one total yard and force them to win on a 46-yard field goal.
SS Johnathan Abram
Abram caused Justin Fields a great deal of pain in this game. The hard-hitting safety made the play on third down to stop the Bears on each of their first two possessions. The first was a hit on Fields on the blitz to force an incompletion and the second way coming up to lay a big hit on Fields to stop him short of the first down on a scramble attempt.
The third drive went for a TD, but not until after Abram made a run stuff for no gain on first and goal from the two. He added two more QB hits in the game to finish with three and his six combined tackles tied for third on the team.
RB Josh Jacobs
Averaging just 3.2 yards per carry isn’t a great day at face value. But Jacobs was doing a lot of heavy lifting to get to that number. On the Raiders’ first scoring drive, he had four touches for 28 yards and looked for a moment to have the touchdown if it weren’t for the line having to hold in order to get it. They would get a field goal out of it though.
Later, Jacobs would score the team’s only TD on a one-yard dive.
CB Casey Hayward
Hayward gave up just one catch in this game. Unfortunately, it went for eight yards on third and seven on the Bears’ second scoring drive, but still. Overall great game for the Raiders’ top cornerback. He also had one pass breakup and three tackles.
Leave a Reply