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Raiders Ballers & Busters for Week 8 vs Jets
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- Raiders Ballers & Busters for Week 8 vs Jets
Sunday the Raiders took the field on the Jets' homefield and from start to finish, it was a knockdown, drag out fight. Body blow after body blow. In the sense that there were a lot of punches landed and not much in the way of bobbing and weaving or blocks. And that's how you end up with a 38-33 game. In this case, with the Raiders being the last team standing.
Ballers
QB Kirk Cousins
The 38-year-old was dealing in this game. Throwing on ropes and fitting the ball into his receivers even with defenders right no their hip. That's what had to be done, because Cousins was so often having to either play catch up or keep pace with the Jets' suddenly high-powered offense (sarcasm).
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Cousins took the field with the Raiders behind already. And he drove down the field for a touchdown. along the way he converted three third downs -- one on a sneak, one a 12-yard completion to Jalen Nailor, and the final one for a touchdown to Brock Bowers.
The rest of the first half wasn't nearly so successful. The Raiders ran just eight offensive plays with two passes -- both completions -- and a turnover on downs, leading to a 23-14 Jets lead at the half. But Kirko Chains didn't wait for the fourth quarter to get on his horse this time. He came out firing to start the third quarter. First pass was a perfect strike to Brock Bowers for 27 yards. They would drive to first and goal (twice!) on the drive and with the run going nowhere, Kirk took to the air again, rolling right and throwing across his body to Bowers for another TD.
The Jets answered with a TD of their own, so Kirk and the Raiders hit back. Cousins completed four passes for 48 yards and then finished it off with a sneak on second-and-goal from the one for the score.
The following drive, the Raiders defense stopped the Jets from scoring for the first time after six straight scoring drives. Down two, it was up to the savvy veteran QB to take the opportunity to steal the momentum. He did just that. He went 4/4 for 74 yards on the drive, with the final pass a strike to Nailor in the back of the end zone for the offense's first go-ahead score since their initial drive of the game. And this one would stick.
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One more successful QB sneak for Cousins on the final drive would help put the Raiders in field goal range while draining the clock and Geno Smith and with just 27 seconds left, the Jets were not able to go the distance at the end.
This was by far Kirk Cousins's best game as a Raider. He set season-highs in completion percentage (73.1), yards per attempt (9.5), total touchdowns (4), and passer rating (141.0).
TE Brock Bowers
I've said several times that Bowers is the kind of player who it doesn't surprise me what he does, but he never ceases to amaze me. And you get the feeling his quarterback feels the same. So many times in this game, Kirk Cousins looked like he was like 'F it, Brock will catch it.' And in most cases, that's exactly what Brock did.
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He's one of those players where if he's matched up one-on-one, he's open. And if he's double teamed, he might still be open. These traits showed up from the jump in this one. The first pass his way went for 23 yards to put the Raiders in first and goal. Three plays later, he was in blanket one-on-one coverage, and literally with one hand tied behind his back, he reached out and snagged the ball with the other hand for the touchdown. Just unreal.
Coming out of the half, it was more of the same. First play saw Brock run a perfect route up seam and make the catch in-stride to sprint for 27 yards. Then he drew a holding penalty on third and goal to give the Raiders a fresh set of downs at the three-yard-line. The brought him across the formation on the next play from left to right, Cousins rolled right and there was Brock to make the catch underneath and push through the defender across the goal line.
That was the first of three straight TD drives for the Raiders, the other two featured key Bowers catches as well. One, for nine yards on first and goal from the ten and the other went for 14 yards which was his seventh catch of the day, giving him a total of 92 yards and two touchdowns.
RS Dylan Laube
In previous games, the Raiders offense has done their level best to try and play catch up with opposing offenses, but each time they fell just short. The difference in this one was Laube.
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The Jets had just stopped the Raiders offense for a three-and-out and went on a long drive to take the lead back 13-7. It was feeling like that 'here we go again' moment. But then on the ensuing kickoff, Laube fielded it at the five and caught a couple blocks -- including a big one from Dareke Young -- and found room up the left sideline and was gone 95 yards for the score.
And the Long Island NY native did this in front of 50 of his friends and family who were in attendance. Huge moment for him and the Raiders. The Raiders re-took the lead 14-13. And, while the Raiders would lose that lead over the rest of the quarter, those seven points proved vital so that when they made their late push, it was enough not just to get close, but to overtake the Jets.
In fact, the next play after the Raiders scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, it was Laube who made the tackle on the kick return to stop it at the 24-yard-line, helping with the field position battle. And proving he is a multi-faceted special teams maven. And no doubt firing up his teammates all over again watching him put on the performance of his life in front of his friends and family.
DE Malcolm Koonce
Not much was working for the Raiders on defense, but Koonce made a few key plays that made a big difference. Late in the third quarter, after hte Raiders scored for the second time to make it a two-point game, he drew a holding penalty on first down. This put the Jets in an obvious passing situation and on the next play, he got pressure to contain Geno Smith, leading to a sack.
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Those two losses had the Jets go three and out and punt for the first time in the game. And the Raiders took advantage of the momentum to drive for the go-ahead touchdown. The following Jets possession was another three-and-out with Koonce in on a tackle for loss on second down.
Honorable Mention
TE Michael Mayer-- The big tight end was second on the team in catches (six) for 53 yards. Most of those catches came in the third and fourth quarter including two for 27 yards on the fourth TD drive and the only catch on the final drive that helped run more clock and get in field goal range.
WR Jalen Nailor-- His best game as a Raider with four catches for 38 yards and a TD (also his first).
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S Jeremy Chinn-- His interception in the end zone sealed the win. It was a terrible decision by Geno Smith to throw it there, but Chinn made the play and tapped his toes inbounds to end it. Great play to close the door.
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This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders Ballers & Busters for Week 8 vs Jets
