Raiders special teams: Daniel Carlson rebounds big time, AJ Cole steady in road win

Kicker doesn’t miss against Baltimore helping Las Vegas boot the Ravens

He scored the first points with his mighty leg and the go-ahead and eventual game-winning field goal, too.

To say Daniel Carlson rebounded this past Sunday after a shaky season opener is an understatement. The Las Vegas Raiders place kicker was “Ca$h Money” as the Silver & Black affectionately refer to their big-legged and accurate sniper going 4-for-4 to help the team boot the Baltimore Ravens 26-23 in a big road victory.

Dueling against elite Ravens kicker Justin Tucker, Carlson drilled field goals from distances of 53-, 51, 25, and 38-yards out — the final of which was the game-winner. The 29-year-old Raiders boot specialist accounted for 14 of Las Vegas’ 26 points. Tucker, meanwhile, is unusually suspect. The 34-year-old missed a 56-yard boot — not a gimmie-type kick, but for Tucker, that’s child’s play (usually) going 2-for-3. Had he made that long-distance field goal and who knows how the game might have ended up.

Nonetheless, Carlson overcame his 1-for-2 outing in Week 1 to go perfect — on field goals and point after attempts (PATs) in a contest where the Raiders (1-1) needed all three phases of the game to drop the Ravens (0-2).

“Fourth quarter is what it needs to look like for all four quarters. We talked about it, we preached it, but I’m glad it did show up in a critical moment, in a critical situation in the game,” Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce said on victory Monday when asked about his team’s ability to play complementary 4-for-4 was a difference, right? His kickoffs giving us an opportunity to pin those guys back twice inside the 25, that was huge for us. Our punt team, again, has been outstanding.”

Raiders punter AJ Cole III was his usual steady self, although, his opportunities were limited. With three punts for 128 yards (a paltry 42.7 average when it comes to Cole), none of the the boots landed inside Baltimore’s 20-yard line. Although, two of Cole’s punts did land or were downed at the 20-yard line.

Ravens return specialist Deontay Harty did return Cole’s initial punt 15 yards, but from that point on, there were no fielded boots.

Cole also started quite a frenzy in the Raiders locker room after the win over the Ravens.

The Raiders dynamic kicking duo along with the respective coverage units were up to the task and continue to be a strength of the Silver & Black.

Carlson, Cole, and Co. need to maintain the high level of play heading into Week 3’s matchup with the Carolina Panthers (0-2). The afternoon contest will be Las Vegas’ first game inside Allegiant Stadium this season and the Raiders must be wary of not playing down to the competition.

“Well, the Raiders got a lot of things that we need to correct. I mean, we got to win yesterday, but there’s a lot of things in that first quarter that was ugly, and that first half that was ugly,” Pierce said. “And in that third quarter that was ugly, to be honest. So, I mean, we’re not worried about the Panthers.

“We got to fix the Raiders.”

Another solid outing from both Carlson and Cole goes a long way to fixing woes. Both have one career game against the Panthers under their respective belts — a 2020 Week 1 34-30 win at Carolina. Carlson was 2-for-2 on field goals and 4-for-4 on PATs, accounting for 10 points. Cole, meanwhile, punted three times for 127 yards (a 42.3 yards per boot average).

Extra Points: Core special teamers DJ Turner, Luke Masterson, Isaiah Pola-Mao, and Kana’i Mauga paced the Raiders in special teams snaps with 27 apiece (82 percent of the unit’s total). Christopher Smith (24 snaps), Tommy Eichenburg (21) and Amari Burney (21) were right behind them.