Ugly Loss For Raiders As Indy Colts Pull Away, 44-27, To Damage LV’s Playoff Aspirations Sunday; Defensive Coordinator Paul Guenther Fired
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
It was a competitive, one-score game heading into the fourth quarter, And the Las Vegas Raiders actually led, 14-10, in the second quarter.
But with five minutes left in the game at Allegiant Stadium, it was garbage time.
By then, the Indianapolis Colts had piled up a 44-20 lead and then coasted to a 44-27 win to improve to 9-4.
Meanwhile the Raiders and their porous defense fell to 7-6 and hardly looked like a team worthy of playing postseason football in the NFL, even if there are now seven instead of six playoff teams.
“Defensively, we had no answer,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said. “We just couldn’t say with them.”
The Raiders yielded 456 yards to the Colts, including 212 rushing yards and 244 yards through the air inside the domed, fan-free venue. The Colts scored on a 62-yard run by Jonathan Taylor, a 41-yard pass from quarterback Philip “Old Man” Rivers to a wide open T.Y. Hilton and a pick-six interception return in the fourth quarter to seal the ugly loss for the Raiders.
The weak defense had consequences.
Update: At 6:53 p.m., the Raiders issued this statement, “The Raiders have relieved Paul Guenther of his duties as defensive coordinator. Defensive line coach Rod Marinelli will serve as interim defensive coordinator for the remainder of the 2020 season.”
he Raiders started flat and played with no juice.
Raiders coach Jon Gruden after the game:
The Colts’ Twitter account wrapped this up this way, “Best Blue Man Group performance Vegas has seen in a while.”
At halftime, the Raiders D had yielded 298 yards.
After the game, Gruden also answered a question about running back Josh Jacobs goofing on fantasy players by saying he wasn’t playing.
Q: “Josh Jacobs posted before the game that he wasn’t playing … Were you aware of that?”
Gruden: “No, I don’t have social media. I don’t really know what to say about that. I’ll answer any questions about the game, not the internet.”
The Colts ended up cruising to the win just in time for Las Vegas folks to hear Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s COVID-19 chat at 4 p.m. Sisolak said the current novel coronavirus restrictions are extended to Jan. 15. Nearly 297,000 Americans have died from this contagious virus. Sisolak said public gatherings are capped at 50 individuals or 25 percent capacity, whichever is less – and private, residential gatherings are limited to 10 people max from no more than two households.
The state of Nevada will continue to monitor and evaluate the current COVID-19 situation to determine whether different actions need to be taken. If officials and experts agree that Nevada’s trends are going beyond our ability to respond, the state will have no choice but to implement new measures, Sisolak said.
Here’s our rundown throughout the afternoon:
Someone needs to tell the Las Vegas Raiders they had a football game to play against the Indianapolis Colts.
The Raiders looked like they just awoke from a late afternoon nap and got off to a rather sluggish start as the Colts gashed the Raiders’ D for two goals to go as Indy jumped out to a 10-0 lead behind a 25-yard chip-shot field goal by Rodrigo Blankenship and a seven-yard TD pass from Philip Rivers to T.Y. Hilton.
But Las Vegas snapped out of their slumber with a touchdown pass from Derek Carr to tight end Foster Moreau, who made a nice move on the final Colts defender to get the Raiders back in the game, 10-7.
In the second period, the Raiders snap out of their early afternoon slumber and march 83 yards down the field, with a 21-yard strike from Carr to wideout Nelson Agholor.
Raiders lead, 14-10, with 10:38 to go in the second quarter.
The back-and-forth game continued with Rivers finding a wide open Hilton in the Raiders secondary. It looked like the Raiders DBs were doing some serious social distancing with Hilton who easily scored to give the Colts a 17-14 lead.
Carr moved the Raiders, as tight end Darren Waller countered with a 28-yard reception. But then the Colts’ Kenny Moore II made a spectacular one-hand interception of a pass intended for Waller in the end zone.
The Colts marched to the two-yard line and Blankenship hit a 20-yarder with a lone second left on the first half clock.
Score at the half: Indy 20 Raiders 14
Missed opportunities for the Raiders in the third quarter.
Two impressive drives stall and Las Vegas settles for short field goals instead of denting the end zone.
Meanwhile, the Colts’ Jonathan Taylor gallops for 62 yards and scores a touchdown for Indy in the middle of the two Raiders field goals.
Score at end of third quarter: Colts 27 Raiders 20
