The Las Vegas Raiders’ inept offense continued to struggle Monday night, even with the return of quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
Garoppolo threw a league-leading ninth interception one play after the Raiders recovered a fumble in the first quarter and the Detroit Lions beat Las Vegas 26-14.
Though the Raiders found the end zone twice, their defense scored one of the touchdowns, a 75-yard interception return from Marcus Peters.
The Raiders dropped to 3-5 and are now tied with the Broncos in the AFC West basement.
“I honestly don’t know what to say at this moment,” Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams said. “I wish I had the words to say something that’s not going to get blown up in the media and taken out of context.”
Here are three takeaways from Monday’s game:
OFFENSIVE FAIL – Through three quarters, the Raiders had 127 yards of offense, including 62 from Jimmy Garoppolo through the air and 61 from Josh Jacobs on the ground. Marcus Peters had 75 yards on his pick-six. Jacobs finished with the same 61 on 15 carries, with one touchdown.
The Raiders finished with a season-low 157 yards on offense.
But the bigger story was Garoppolo, who finished 10 of 21 for just 126 yards and an interception, as the guy who was brought in to replace Derek Carr couldn’t find his groove at any point, missing a wide-open Adams on at least two occasions. His interception was also directed at Adams. After his late-game misfire to Adams, the star wideout who came to Las Vegas to play with Carr slammed his helmet on the sideline, exclaimed angrily, and seethed in disgust on the bench.
Collectively, Raiders quarterbacks have thrown a league-high 13 interceptions. They also have the league’s second-worst passer rating (72.5).
DEFENSIVE FAIL – Las Vegas came into the game having limited five opponents to fewer than 200 yards passing – an NFL-high.
But Detroit quarterback Jared Goff completed 26 of 37 passes for 272 yards, including six times for 108 with Amon-Ra St. Brown, who played through an illness. Goff connected with rookie Sam LaPorta for an 18-yard TD in the second quarter.
LaPorta finished with eight receptions for 57 yards and became the first NFL player to have at least three catches and 35-plus yards receiving in his first eight games.
In addition, rookie running back Jahmyr Gibbs rumbled for a season-high 152 yards and a touchdown.
The 486 yards by the Lions were the most allowed by the Raiders all season. They hadn’t allowed more than 333 since Week 2 in Buffalo, where the Bills gained 450.
DEFENSIVE SUCCESS – On the bright side – surprisingly there is one – the Raiders defense registered three takeaways against the Lions, the second time this season the defense has forced three or more takeaways. Las Vegas’ two games with three or more takeaways are tied for the sixth most in the NFL this
season.
The Raiders’ stop unit also held the Lions to just a 20% (1 of 5) conversion rate in the red zone, including a stifling 0 for 3 showing in goal-to-go situations. The Raiders’ defense has now allowed opponents to score on a mere 65.0% of goal-to-go situations, tied for the 13th-best mark in the NFL in 2023.
Safety Tre’von Moehrig led the defense with a single-game, career-high 10 total tackles, improving to 46 total tackles this season, also a career-high through the first eight games of a season.
Defensive end Maxx Crosby continues to be Las Vegas’ overall best player, as he finished the game with eight total tackles (five solo), one tackle for loss, one quarterback hit, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. Crosby Crosby has 48 total tackles this season – second highest in the NFL among defensive linemen.
