Raiders offense lifeless in 32-13 lost against Bengals

Raiders offense was out of sync and wasn’t clicking at all against a scrappy Bengals team. Going into Sunday this game for both teams had a lot of early playoff indications seeing as both teams were coming in at 5-4 and both alive for a wildcard berth. The Bengals defense did a great job playing a bend but don’t break style of defense. Derek Carr never really looked comfortable. Sam Hubbard and Trey Hendrickson kept making plays in the backfield. Jessie Bates III made several big plays coming down from his safety position into the box. Raiders wide receivers were pretty non existent and have been non existent the last few weeks. Also, Carr has had a key interception in three straight games.

“We came out flat. It was terrible. There’s not beating around it,” said Carr. “The last couple weeks we just take turns. We’re just really out of sync right now and no one’s coming to save us so we gotta figure it out.”

As for the Bengals they made plays. They went 8 of 15 on third down. Joe Mixon had one of his best games of the year with 123 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns. The Bengals were also able to capitalize off Raiders miscues. The Bengals had an early scoring drive with two massive penalties on the Raiders. The first was an offside penalty on defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson, which nullified a third-down sack of Joe Burrow. The second penalty came deep in Raiders territory on another third down, and it also extended Cincinnati's drive. On third-and-11, Burrow completed a short pass to Tyler Boyd, but Brandon Facyson was called for unnecessary roughness on a helmet-to-helmet hit.

The Bengals are now 6-4 and sit one game back of the Baltimore Ravens. Bengals welcome the Pittsburgh Steelers to town for a division matchup with heavy playoff implications. The Raiders' loss drops their record to 5-5. The Raiders are not in playoff position at the moment. The Raiders have a short break before they travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. Dallas could be without both Amari Cooper (COVID-19) and CeeDee Lamb (concussion) for that game.