After Electrifying Early Wins, Slumping Raiders Fall To Bengals, 32-13, Sunday As Season Unravels
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
Just the facts: Cincinnati Bengals 32 Las Vegas Raiders 13
Storyline: Raiders defense wilted in the end and Raiders offense mounted only a single TD drive. A season is unraveling with a head coach who had to resign last month and two players waived this month because of off-the-field problems.
Trending: Three straight losses for Raiders to New York Giants, KC Chiefs and now the Bengals. A 5-2 start has meekly dropped to 5-5. You sense a defeated franchise that lacks spark or even an emotionally-invested local fan base. Sad performance today. “… being a Raider fan for a long time, 20 years of this crap is enough, I’m fed up. I just want to be part of the moment that changes. I want that so bad, that’s what keeps driving me. I get pissed off and I get upset,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said after the loss.
Paid attendance: 61,712
Next game: Raiders play Cowboys in Dallas on Thanksgiving. Carr: “We need a win. I don’t care about anything else; we need to win. What a great opportunity, we have a short week. We don’t get time to breathe, we don’t get time to decompress after that one. Like, I’ll go home, and I’ll start working on the Cowboys.”
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In a mere four days, Allegiant Stadium has hosted three high school football games, a UNLV football game on artificial turf and today an NFL Raiders game on natural turf.
The Raiders and today’s foe, the Cincinnati Bengals, are gridiron twins as both are 5-4 on two-game losing streaks. Both NFL clubs are anchored by quarterbacks, Derek Carr for the Raiders and Heisman-winning Joe Burrow who have both piled up lots of passing yards.
At kickoff, there were empty seats scattered around the 62,000-seat domed venue. For the Bears, Eagles and Chiefs games, the Raiders stadium was packed with many visitors, showing that the palatial stadium was about tourism as much as it is a home NFL stadium for locals.
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In the first quarter, the Raiders and Bengals traded field goals and both teams were locked at three.
The Raiders had a golden opportunity to score a touchdown when Dallin Leavitt returned a fumble to inside the Cincinnati 10-yard line, but the Raiders had to settle for a 26-yard chip shot field goal by Daniel Carlson.
Obviously, poor performance by us for the most part all the way around. Ended up being a third down game. Our offense we were 1-of-7, on defense they were 8-of-16 and fifty percent. Early in the game we get the big turnover. We don’t get a chance to capitalize on that with a touchdown. We get a field goal out of that. Even when we had a chance to stop them early on defense, we end up with some critical penalties that hurt us that kept extending drives alive and that put them in the scoring zone as well. — Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia
The Bengals, aided by a Raiders roughing penalty, moved into Las Vegas territory and Evan McPherson kicked a 54-yard field goal.
Raiders 3 Bengals 3 after one quarter.
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A Raiders drive stalled and Carlson booted a 47-yarder to give the Raiders a 6-3 lead.
But the first half theme of the Raiders committing bad defensive penalties continued. A Raiders defensive offsides negated a sack of Burrow. Then, a roughing penalty allowed the Bengals to convert a first down and running back Joe Mixon ran it in from 12 yards on the next play.
Bengals 10 Raiders 6 at halftime.
The Raiders D limited the Bengals to only 122 total yards, but penalties hurt. As for the offense, Carr was 8 for 12 for 69 yards as the Raiders piled up only 107 total yards.
At least Sammy Hagar was the halftime entertainment.
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The Raiders’ Carr-led offense is not clicking today. A scoreless third quarter for the Raiders, which have piled up only 143 yards of offense and just seven first downs.
Cincinnati added a long McPherson field goal.
After three quarters: Bengals 13 Raiders 6
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Things got real interesting in the fourth quarter. After the Bengals’ McPherson banged home another 50-yard-plus field goal, the alarm went off and the Raiders came to life as Carr hit Darren Waller for two long passes and fellow tight end Foster Moreau for a TD and Las Vegas was back in business.
The Raiders trailed, 16-13, with about 11 minutes to go in the 4Q.
The Raiders defense, which played stoutly through most of the game, withered. The Bengals drove 62 yards, chewing up clock along the way, and scored on a Burrow-to-Ja’Marr Chase TD pass. A missed extra point and Bengals led, 22-13.
Carr tried to rally, but he was picked off. Mixon ran it in from 21 yards and Cincinnati had a comfy, 29-13 lead. Mixon ended the day with 123 yards on 30 carries with two TDs.
The Raiders’ performance ended sadly, with Carr fumbling while being tackled with 1:23 left in 4Q.
A McPherson 47-yard FG capped the scoring. In the end, the Bengals outgained the Raiders only by 10 yards, 288-278, but seemed in control most of the game thanks to time of possession of 37:20-22:40.
Final: Bengals 32 Raiders 13
We had penalties in critical situations. It extended drives for them against our defense. We were playing well on defense we gave some big push in there. We expected to get some runs out of them. We were running the ball well in play action, so we have to look at how the penalties actually hurt us and why we are so out of sync right now on offense. It has been a little bit of an ongoing theme for us to be talking about the last three weeks. So we have to see what we did poorly and then see how we can fix it. — Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia
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Parking for Raiders games can be as low as $30 about three blocks away to the $100 pictured here.
By now, fans have figured out their routines — parking at an MGM Resorts property and walking on Hacienda Avenue over I-15; hopping a $4 roundtrip express ride via RTC, or paying the $100 for parking in one of the Raiders lots.
The tailgating scene is very different here at Allegiant Stadium than at the Coliseum in Oakland. There’s no sea of asphalt here in Las Vegas, but these $100 spaces do bring the hardcore tailgaters who put on an impressive display.
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I interviewed fans at the Raiders’ alternate screening tent, where people with their vaccination cards got issues cleared up or got their first COVID-19 vaccination shots.
“I sold by soul to attend a Raiders game,” joked one Raiders fan who got his first vax shot so that he can attend today’s game.
The Raiders grass playing surface was rolled in after the UNLV artificial was removed.
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The Raiders won their two games after Jon Gruden resigned last month because of his private emails, but lost their last three games after Henry Ruggs III was charged for DUI in a car crash that killed a young woman and her dog earlier this month.
The team has played topsy-turvy football on the field, while enduring major problems off the gridiron.
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Technically, it’s a Las Vegas Raiders home game. But NFL games at Allegiant Stadium are also tourism events.
We saw the visiting fans in Bears blue, Eagles green and Chiefs red at Raiders home games. Those fans, assuming they are staying in hotel rooms, are helping contribute to the stadium room tax revenue funds, which are paying for the public’s $750 million contribution to build this palatial domed stadium across from Mandalay Bay on the west side of Interstate 15.
There were Bengals fans here this morning, too. It’s unlikely the Cincinnati fans will match the Philly or KC presence inside this 62,000-seat stadium, but they were up early and tailgating in a parking lot off Hacienda Avenue.
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How have the Raiders played in wins and losses — it’s a picture of extremes.
