You won’t see many more lopsided victories than the Raiders had over the Giants Sunday. It was made all the more amazing when compared to how they looked over the first eight games of this season.
They stopped the Giants with a three-and-out to start things off and then drove for a touchdown. The next three Giants drives were a turnover on downs, consecutive sacks to put them in third and 27 and a punt, and a three and out.
Then midway through the second quarter, the Raiders drove for another touchdown, intercepted the ball, scored a third touchdown, intercepted the ball again, added a field goal at the end of the first half, and another one to begin the third to go up 27-0.
It was enough to make your head spin. At least if you were the Giants.
Ballers
HC Antonio Pierce
He brought the Raiders ready to play and itching to get him a big win in his debut of the post-Josh McDaniels era. The players came out pumped and the Giants got caught under the wheels of that bus.
The offense scored over 20 points for the first time this season, Josh Jacobs had a season-high rushing yards, and the defense had eight sacks, two turnovers off interceptions, and four others on downs. Then they sparked up cigars afterward to celebrate being out from under Josh McDaniels’s thumb and finally having fun again.
DE Maxx Crosby
Crosby came into the game outside the top ten in sacks. And left tied for second with TJ Watt. And even with three sacks in the game, he was still more valuable than his sack total.
The first Giants possession saw them line up in fourth and one to go for it. Then Maxx got the right guard to jump and they had to punt instead. The next drive saw the Giants again go for it on fourth and one. This time Crosby led the way in making the stop at the line for no gain.
The third drive ended with Crosby chasing down Daniel Jones for the sack. Jones attempted to get away from Crosby and tore his ACL.
Already up 27-0 in the third quarter, Crosby saw to it they didn’t close that gap. He got pressure on first down and got his second sack on third down to force another three-and-out. That series pretty much slammed the door on the Giants’ chances of coming back. But just for good measure, he would add one more sack early in the fourth quarter.
Even with the Raiders defense finally stepping up to match his energy, he still led the way for this team. And had cigars ready for the whole team after the game.
CB Amik Robertson
With the Raiders up 14-0 in the second quarter, the Giants knew they needed to make a big play. QB Tommy DeVito launched one for the end zone and Robertson flew over, got up in the air and picked it off, much like he did to win the game against the Packers a few weeks ago. He would get up and return this one to th 40-yard-line and the Raiders would capitalize on the turnover with their third touchdown of the day.
Early in the fourth quarter, he made a hard hit on a catch to knock the ball out on fourth down. And a bit later he added a forced fumble to his stat line just for good measure. Have yourself a game, Amik.
RB Josh Jacobs
Set the tone early and kept it going. He had 31 yards on on four runs on the opening touchdown drive, 33 yards and the touchdown run from two yards out on the second scoring drive, and scored again from two yards out on the next drive.
He already had a season-high 85 yards rushing by half time and the Raiders led 24-0. He surpassed 100 yards for a moment before a loss on a run put him back at 98 yards.
DT Bilal Nichols, DT John Jenkins
The 34-year-old was playing like he was ten years younger, showing rare pass rush and sideline-to-sideline run stopping abilities for a 327-pounder. He got pressure on the second play of the game to force an incompletion and the Giants started the game with a three-and-out.
The second Giants drive saw them line up in third and three and Nichols made the run stop short of the sticks. Then on fourth and one, he teamed up with Crosby and Jenkins to stop the tush push for no gain.
The first possession of the second quarter saw Jenkins race down the line to make a tackle for loss in the left flat, leading to another three-and-out.
Pressure was coming from all over the Raiders line, but Nichols was doing some nice complementary football with Crosby in this one. On consecutive plays in the fourth quarter Nichols had a pressure that led to a Crosby sack and then Crosby had pressure that led to a Nichols sack. That’s how it’s supposed to be done.
QB Aidan O’Connell
The rookie scored on the opening drive while delivering a strike on a slant to Jakobi Meyers that went for 25 yards.
The next scoring drive, he reminded us that Hunter Renfrow is on this team with consecutive connections to the shifty slot receiver for 19 yards and 13 yards to put the Raiders in first and goal. They scored the TD on the next play.
Following the Amik Robertson interception, O’Connell threw deep on the first play for a gorgeous 50-yard hookup with speedster Tre Turner to put the Raiders in first and goal at the ten. They scored three plays later.
He opened the second half by completing passes on four third downs, converting the first three and putting them in field goal range with the fourth one to make it a 27-0 game.
The rookie didn’t have massive numbers, but he delivered some strikes, ran the offense perfectly, and didn’t turn the ball over. Not much more you can ask of him than that.
LT Kolton Miller, LG Dylan Parham, C Andre James, RG Greg Van Roten, RT Jermaine Eluemunor
The entire Oline played every snap, didn’t give up a single sack, and opened holes for Josh Jacobs to hit 100 yards and two touchdowns.
On the second TD drive, Eluemunor and Van Roten made key blocks on a 15-yard Jacobs run and Eluemunor laid a key block on the touchdown run. Miller, Parham, and Van Roten got out left to make key blocks on a 15-yard catch in the left flat by DeAndre Carter to get things going in the third quarter.
Honorable Mention
WR Jakobi Meyers — Scored the Raiders first TD on a sweep and made some nice blocks in the game as well.
RB Ameer Abdullah — Did some great dirty work on offense and special teams.
WR Tre Tucker — Made an incredible diving 50-yard grab that set up the Raiders’ second touchdown of the game.
Busters
None
This was about as flawless a performance as you’ll see on both sides of the ball. The Raiders were up 24-0 by half time and were up 27-0 midway through the third before the Giants got on the board for the first time. Hard to find blame for anything when one team scores that much and gives up nothing.
