LAS VEGAS – The Raiders' long-running nightmare continued against the Cowboys on Monday, to little surprise. A promising first quarter was all for naught, as Dallas used a 21-3 second quarter rally to bury the home team in front of the Allegiant Stadium en route to a 33-16 trouncing that was even more lopsided than the score indicates.
Dak Prescott threw four touchdown passes to four different receivers, three of which came in the second quarter alone, to push the Raiders to an abysmal 2-8 record for the second consecutive year. The only two outcomes seemingly achievable by Las Vegas this season are heartbreaking, last-second losses or lopsided decisions that are essentially over by halftime.
As always, coach Pete Carroll addressed the media after the game and expressed regret that his team wasn’t able to live up to the moment on either side of the ball. And the coaches on the headsets, for that matter.
An early and unsuccessful pass-heavy playcall diet put the Raiders in a precarious position early on in terms of offensive balance, and the defense giving up 381 yards of offense and 33 points surely didn’t help the cause either.
“We didn't get stuff done the way we wanted to on either side of the ball,” Carroll said. “We were excited about the chance and wanted to go after these guys and go get them. You saw we were really aggressive throwing the ball in the first half. It got us out of balance, I know that, but we had so many good opportunities.”
Taking The Blame
When reporters pressed further about the decision to be so aggressive early on in the game at the expense of establishing the rush, Carroll ultimately took responsibility for the decision but insisted that he felt it was the right move to get the offense going for a highly-anticipated game.
“There's only one person to look at, it's me,” Carroll said. “Because I was an influence on the game plan. I loved the way we were chunking them, and we made big plays. I knew what was happening, Chip and I knew what was going on. But we were trying to stay with it, to see if we could continue to get the big plays, which we were getting. And then we just stalled in the red zone.”
“I don't really care about pleasing people with our run-pass mix. I'm trying to move the football, and I wanted to get the ball to Brock (Bowers) a bunch and see what he could do, and our other guys, and that kinda worked out … When you come back to it, we were supposed to be ahead with that approach. And then we're supposed to come back and run the football in the second half. But with our inability to get in the zone, and to get stops, it didn't work out that way.”
Carroll also expressed regret that the team wasn’t able to stop Cowboys’ breakout receiver George Pickens, who torched the Raiders for nine receptions for 194 yards and a touchdown on Monday. The performance marked Pickens’ second-highest receiving yardage total of the season and the third-highest of his career.
“I was really disappointed that we didn't stop them more,” Carroll said. “They have a really good offense and they do a nice job with it. Obviously, Pickens was really a problem for us. It wasn't just when he caught it, it was after the catch stuff that really was impressive, that he was able to run through us like that.
“I'm just surprised that we weren't able (to stop him), because we knew he was a good player. We went in to defend him, we rolled to him, we covered him, we doubled him a couple times, and he still came through.”