The Oakland Raiders stormed in to Lucas Oil Stadium this Sunday and emerged victorious, beating the Indianapolis Colts 31-24. The Raiders jumped out to a quick 14-point lead, thanks to a receiving touchdown from Foster Moreau and a 60-yard rushing touchdown from Trevor Davis on a fake-toss end-around.
Strong Opening
The first drive was confusing. The Raiders were passing out of strong, weak, and I️-form packages, that left not only me, but the Colts defense as well, very confused. Josh Jacobs got 3 touches on the first drive, all Power-O rushes to the right side,but a handful of play-action passes kept the Colts on their toes.
Run Strength
My notes mention Jacobs countless times as I️ watched Jalen Richard and DeAndre Washington record most of the catches out of the backfield while Jacobs stayed on the sideline. The Raiders had a perfect first drive, moving down the field in a methodical way, that might have fed into Derek Carr’s comforts.
Second Half
The Raiders also had a very impressive drive to start the second half, chewing up 9 minutes but resulting in 3 points due to an apparent dropped pass on third down. Carr recorded 189 pass yards, but logged 2 passing touchdowns and kept a rating of 105.4. Carr led his team to victory. He did not throw an interception and just did what he needed to do to secure the win.
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Improved Defense
On defense, the Raiders gave up a few big plays but kept the Colts in check, especially in the red zone. Jacoby Brissett threw for 265 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception and posted a rating of 82.3. A big chunk of Brissett’s yards came from the Colts final drive of the game in which Brissett logged about 60 yards and 1 touchdown to Eric Enron, who unsurprisingly, was quite unreliable until that catch.
Game Clincher
The game ball should go to Erik Harris. Harris, a safety, recorded 7 total tackles and stopped Colts players at the line of scrimmage. Harris is an absolute animal. Even without his game-clinching pick-six, Harris could be seen flying downhill to make tackles at the line before our linebackers.
Final Note
Lastly, shoutout to the offensive line for coming to work today. Carr stayed upright for a vast majority of the game and opened an impressive amount of holes in the line for Jacobs to run through. The Raiders played well this week, but will have to bring this level of play and more to London when they square off with the Chicago Bears.
