Raiders self-destruct in loss, vow to stick together in future

By Case Keefer (contact)

Monday, Sept. 19, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Derek Carr had showered, held his postgame news conference and packed his bags but still headed back into the Raiders’ home locker room long after a 29-23 overtime loss to the Arizona Cardinals with one final piece of business.

Slot receiver Hunter Renfrow was standing at his locker with his head down in a mostly silent, empty room until Carr marched over and offered words of encouragement. Renfrow made the fatal mistake in the defeat, fumbling a pass from Carr that Cardinals cornerback Byron Murphy Jr. scooped and returned for a 59-yard game-winning touchdown, but his teammates wanted him to know they had his back.

“Hunter is a hell of a player,” fellow receiver and team captain Mack Hollins said. “You have moments in your career where something happens. What I’ve learned is it’s the guys around you that are going to bring you back. It’s harder to pull yourself off from the bottom so we’ll be there for him. So be it, he fumbled. To say that’s the reason we lost the game is ridiculous. There’s 60 minutes plus some, so to say one play is the reason, hell no.”

There’s no disputing it was a full-team collapse from the Raiders that led to them squandering a 20-0 halftime lead in a game where their win probability reached as high as 96.5% according to ESPN analytics. The self-immolation hit harder with it coming in the team’s home debut to drop them to 0-2 on the season.

The coaching staff might be entirely different, and the roster now packed with more star power, but the Raiders couldn’t escape the reckless ways that have accompanied them ever since moving to Las Vegas. Ten of their 18 regular-season home games at Allegiant Stadium have now been decided by a touchdown or less, including five that reached overtime.

The 27.7% overtime rate at Allegiant Stadium is more than five times the 5.5% NFL average. Last year, Las Vegas was able to bend its close-game penchant to success in setting an NFL record with five walk-off wins. This year, the results seem to be evening out like they so often do in the NFL.

Playing with fire has burned the Raiders in back-to-back games to start the season where they’ve lost by a total of 11 points.

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to learn to handle success like we had in the first half and/or failure if you’re on the other end of the spectrum, if you’re behind, and that starts with me,” Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said. “I’ve got to do a better job of getting our team to handle a lead just as much as when we were trying to fight back last week from a deficit. We’re learning, and we’ve got to learn quick, and we’ve got to start finding some victories along the way.”

An 0-2 start would typically be navigable in a 17-game NFL season, but it’s going to be more difficult than normal given the Raiders’ situation. Some called the AFC West the best division in the history of the NFL coming into the season — an assessment betting odds backed up — and every team other than the Raiders has started the season with at least one victory.

The Raiders are only projected to be a bigger favorite than the -5.5 they closed against the Cardinals once for the rest of the season — in a Week 7 game hosting the Houston Texans.

“There’s going to be ups and downs, but it’s rough right after the game,” Raiders edge rusher and captain Maxx Crosby said. “Emotions are everywhere. It’s just a part of it, you can’t dwell on it.”

“It sucks. I never want to lose in general. Yeah, it hurts, especially in that fashion. Like I don’t even understand how we lost.”

Much like last week seemed to showcase the potential of the Raiders’ offense led by wide receiver Davante Adams despite a loss to the Chargers, this week felt the equivalent with Crosby and the defense in the first half. Crosby had only one sack and two quarterback hits, but seemed to be in Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray’s face or at his shoestrings on every play.

The pressure kept the Cardinals’ offense from ever getting in sync with only 86 first-half yards.

But Las Vegas struggled to get to Murray aside from Crosby, and the inability to finish off sacks started to haunted them in the second half. Murray scrambled away and found open receivers en route to 277 passing yards, leading touchdown drives in three of Arizona’s final four possessions.

He only rushed for 28 yards on five carries, but that included two of the biggest plays of the game. Trailing 23-13 after a 1-yard touchdown run by Darrel Williams, Murray eluded defenders for 20 seconds all over the field before giving up on a pass and running in a two-point conversion.

It went down as a 2-yard gain in the statistics book, but the fourth-year star must have covered close to 100 yards of ground on the play.

“They’ve got a lot of athletes, including their quarterback,” Raiders linebacker Jayon Brown said. “That two-point play was ridiculous. We’ve just got to go out there, make plays and finish strong. We started off fast, how we wanted to, and we just didn’t finish.”

The Cardinals needed another touchdown and two-point conversion to force overtime afterwards, and Brown nearly ended their hopes with an interception on a shovel pass at the 6-yard line but dropped it. That was one example of many where Las Vegas could have ended the game.

The Raiders stopped five more plays inside the 6-yard line after Brown’s near pick — a holding penalty on safety Roderic Teamer gave the Cardinals a fresh set of downs — but Murray found a hole and scrambled in a 3-yard touchdown on a fourth-down play at the end of regulation. The Cardinals then got a delay of game penalty before the two-point conversion, but Murray found A.J. Green for a successful seven-yard attempt anyway to make the score 23-23.

“I feel like we played really well in the first half, and I don’t know,” Crosby said. “Things just got away.”

The Cardinals won the coin toss in overtime and could have ended the game with a touchdown. But the Raiders’ defense, noticeably gassed from being on the field for nearly 40 straight minutes because of late-game ineffectiveness from the offense, made an improbable stop. Veteran safety and team captain Duron Harmon made a big tackle on third-down, and pass break-up on fourth down to get the Raiders’ offense the ball back at their own 44-yard line.

They needed only about 25 yards to get into comfortable range of kicker Daniel Carlson, who was 3-for-3 on field goal attempts on the day. The Raiders got 18 yards on a pair of passes to Renfrow before he fumbled for the second time in three plays.

Tight end Foster Moreau was able to dive on the first fumble and prolong the drive, but no one was there for the second that was jarred out on a diving tackle by Cardinals linebacker Isaiah Simmons.

Renfrow lay on the field nearly motionless, and was later evaluated for a concussion, while Murphy waltzed to the end zone. Everyone on the Raiders’ sideline stood in shock.

Las Vegas was so close to yet another chance to win if Renfrow holds onto the ball, but unlike last year, they couldn’t capitalize in the decisive moment of a close game that could have gone either way.

“I thought we went down, hit a couple plays — a nice run, we hit Hunter and were getting into Daniel’s range,” Carr said. “I thought we had a chance, man. It was hard the way it went at the end.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or