I went out to Oakland on a long weekend and saw the Raiders get beaten by the Minnesota Vikings.
Key term was “beaten.” It wasn’t a game where you say “should have, could have”, and think that could have been a win. Don’t sleep on the Vikings. It was not a loss, but getting whipped by the better team. I see where people think the Patterson kickoff return made the difference, but it’s not true. The Raiders were in trouble all day. Minnesota has Adrian Peterson, a true Hall-of-Famer, a defense of no-names that puts pressure on quarterbacks and stops the run; and Teddy Bridgewater.
Let me discuss Teddy Bridgewater for a second. I couldn’t find a Vikings fan who really likes the guy, but what I saw is the reason that team is 7-2: The Raiders put a lot of pressure on Bridgewater. He’s not making the big glaring mistake. The guy is athletic enough to get out of tough situations. It wasn’t pretty but they won, which is all that matters.
Meanwhile, Derek Carr had some moments, but I’ll tell you what: he threw some not-so-good balls, and he saw way more pressure than he normally does. Particularly glaring to me was the final ball Terrence Newman picked off, and I saw it all the way. Carr threw a flat ball to Andre Holmes and gave him almost no chance to make a play. That was the pick before Peterson’s 80-yard run.
After the game, some Vikings fans were laughing at the Raiders. My friend said “ha, how about Super Bowl 11?”
LMAO, the people laughing at the Raiders weren’t even born when Super Bowl 11 was played. LMAO.