I saw us come out and do exactly what the Raiders expected us to do, try to run Nick Chubb into the teeth of their defense and then try to throw 4 yard passes, the only deep throw we attempted early was there, he just dropped it. Once they took the reins off of Mullens and started to let him throw the ball down the field, surprise, running lanes started to open up.
I saw the Raiders protect Carr with 6 blockers on most plays because they knew if they could hold off the rush long enough, our depleted secondary would break down. Credit to the secondary for not giving up many big plays and keeping things in front of them. It felt, for much of the game, like they were gouging us for 7 or 8 yards on simple runs on first down and that we were giving them every pass they wanted under 8 yards.... yet when I checked the score, they had only scored 10 points...
I saw us, in a game where we were fighting against all odds, put ourselves in a position to win and absolutely REFUSE to take any chances that could have won us the game. It's like we would rather face almost certain death by 1000 cuts, because that's what the analytics say, than for SOMEBODY to take a chance and if it doesn't work, have to answer for it.
I saw our special teams cost us yet again. I get the punter, the dude is like 45 years old and was signed 2 weeks ago out of necessity, but our FG kicker has just fallen apart. He was 15/15 on XPs and 9/9 on FGs after about 6 games, since then he's 14/15 on XPs and 6/12 on FGs. He has missed at least one kick in 6 in of our last 8 games. When you are playing a bunch of close games in the middle of a playoff run, having your FG kicker be 50% isn't going to cut it.
Overall, I saw a team that was as prepared as they could have been, a team that played with good intensity, a stadium that was rocking, and a game that was winnable... and a staff that just couldn't pull the trigger when the win was in their sites.
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