Fans of the Oakland Raiders have to be feeling pretty good about themselves after Sunday’s win against the Chicago Bears. Not only did the Raiders beat the Bears 24-21, but they did it playing their style of football; a balanced attack that featured rookie running back Josh Jacobs. Now Jacobs wasn’t the only player that had a phenomenal game in London. There was a plethora of players and position groups that excelled for the Raiders on Sunday, but Jacobs’ star shined the brightest.
Josh Jacobs Makes Case for Offensive Rookie of the Year in Win Over Chicago Bears
Josh Jacobs has come out the gate hot to start his rookie season and hasn’t looked back since. Jacobs ran for 123 yards and two touchdowns on 26 carries. Before playing the Raiders, the Bears had yet to surrender 100 rushing yards in a game, let alone a 100-yard rusher. The Raiders attacked the strength of the Bears and Jacobs continue to display the amazing burst and vision which led him to be the only running back drafted in the first round. Oh and the first-round pick the Raiders used to draft Jacobs is the same pick they got from the Bears in the Khalil Mack trade. Speaking of Mack…
The Offensive Line Shuts Down Mack
Throughout the entire week, all the media attention was on Mack and how he would make the Raiders and Jon Gruden pay for trading him away. This game was even dubbed by many as the “Khalil Mack Bowl”. What no one seemed to realize, though, is that the offensive line for the Raiders has quietly been one of the best in the league this year. They continued their stellar play by completely shutting down Mack, allowing him to record a mere three tackles and zero sacks. Night and day for this Raiders unit, who allowed Derek Carr to be sacked 51 times last year. Tom Cable deserves a heap of praise for the job he’s done developing Kolton Miller.
Carr Plays Clean Football
Derek Carr has shown a tendency to be hot and cold throughout the course of his career. After coming off an above-average performance against the Colts, it was fair to assume that Carr would make some boneheaded mistakes against one of the best, if not the best, defenses in the league. That was not the case though, as Carr threw for 200 plus yards, targeting nine different receivers, and zero interceptions. His lone turnover came on a fumbled toss to Jacobs that was solely an audible miscommunication. His performance was even more impressive when you take into account that the Raiders entered this game with only four active wide receivers, one of which was traded for a little over a week ago (Trevor Davis), and the other was promoted from the practice squad the day before (Marcell Ateman). Carr’s performance against the Bears is nothing that will make the highlight shows, but it was significant in the win and deserves recognition.
Conclusion
Despite a rocky third quarter, the Raiders played a solid game of football and had a strong showing in all three phases of the game. The offense was perfectly balanced, blending the run and pass extremely well, and the defense flustered backup quarterback, Chase Daniel, all day. The Bears offense had been struggling all season, so the Raiders did their job and continued to make them struggle. With a bye week coming up, it’ll be interesting to see where the Raiders go from here. Coming off Jon Gruden’s first two-game winning streak since 2008, it’ll be exciting to see how the Raiders respond coming out of the bye. There’s still over half a season of football left to play, so the Raiders need to keep their focus and do their best to come out of this grueling road trip with at least a .500 record. After that, there’s not a game left on the schedule that the Raiders can’t win.
