National Football League

Three and Out: Oakland Raiders at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:49 p.m. ET

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Three and Out is a weekly series that will examine three areas where the Oakland Raiders played well, and three areas where they didn’t.

In yet another game that came down to the wire, the Oakland Raiders once again came away with a nail-biting victory, this time in overtime against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The 30-24 victory brought the Raiders to 6-2 on the season, including a 5-0 record on the road. It’s the team’s best start since 2001, and the first time they’ve been that successful on the road since 1977.

As always, there are areas where the team played well, and areas where they didn’t. Let’s start with the positives. Here and three things the Raiders did well on Sunday.

Oct 23, 2016; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr (4) reacts after a touchdown in the second half against the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Field. Oakland Raiders won 33-16. Mandatory Credit: Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports

1. Derek Carr

What a day it was for Derek Carr. He set a new franchise record with 513 passing yards — a record that had stood since 1964.

To get there, Carr completed 40 of 59 passes (67.8%) and he had 4 TD’s and 0 INT’s to boot. Per ESPN Stats & Info, the third-year quarterback became just the third player in NFL history to reach those marks, joining Ben Roethlisberger in 2014 and Y.A. Tittle in 1962.

This wasn’t only the best performance of the game, it’s the best performance of any player at any position in any game this year.

As explained in our weekly ‘Game Ball’ column, Carr’s numbers could have been even better, if not for a few tough breaks. He had 71 passing yards negated by penalty, Amari Cooper dropped a long completion, and Seth Roberts dropped a long touchdown. Carr fell short of the NFL record by just 41 yards.

That’s my quarterback.

2. Amari Cooper

Carr’s performance was phenomenal, and Amari Cooper was the primary beneficiary of that performance. But at the same time, Carr wouldn’t have had nearly as great of a day as he did if not for Cooper roasting any cornerback put in front of him.

Amari’s 12 catches for 173 yards were both career highs, and he put up these numbers on just 15 targets. So the AC/DC connection was in full affect on Sunday, and it was of course their most impressive performance to date.

Cooper has now had at least 129 yards receiving in three out of the last four games, and is clearly cementing himself as a superstar wideout.

Coop’s release and route-running ability is absurd, and really just about every part of his game is top-notch. He can win jump balls and he’s starting to make tough grabs on a weekly basis. He had one bad drop, but it was only his second of the year.

The sky is the limit for #89, and Raiders fans got a glimpse of that against Tampa. I have a feeling there is more of this time come.

3. Defense

How about that defense?

The performance by the defense might even qualify as dominant. Not to oversell it, but it was a huge improvement and a fantastic showing from a group that has struggled all year long. They should really be proud of how they played, and it was the second week in a row where the unit progressed.

The defense held Tampa Bay to just 270 yards of total offense — for context, the worst offense in the NFL averages 290 yards per game. So that is how good of a performance it was for this defense.

Jameis Winston completed just 50 percent of his passes for 180 yards, although he did have 2 TDs and no interceptions. The craziest stat of the day might be that the Raiders had more penalties (23) than Winston had completions (16) and more penalty yards (200) than Winston had passing yards.

Mike Evans was held to 4 catches for 50 yards on the day, and he had 3 for 45 within a few minutes of the game starting. So he was held to 1 catch for 5 yards for almost the duration of the game. Shoutout to David Amerson.

Khalil Mack was completely dominant — he picked up 2 sacks, 7 tackles (2 for a loss), 4 QB hits, and was disruptive almost every single snap. Mack now his a sack in three consecutive games, and it may not feel like it, but this is the most productive start to a season in his career.

The defense limited the Tampa run game, which had been rolling coming into the week, to 102 yards on 27 carries. Jacquizz Rodgers, coming off of 257 yards on the ground in the last two games, was held to 69 yards on 19 carries.

The only downside to the defensive performance was failing to create any turnovers — an area they’ve excelled all season. But regardless, this was a much needed performance from this group. There were several times the defense kept the team in the game, which is really the first time that can be said all year.

Credit to Ken Norton Jr. and Jack Del Rio for making some adjustments as well. There were some noticeable changes made at halftime, and perhaps it just took this group longer than hoped to gel.

Oct 30, 2016; Tampa, FL, USA; Oakland Raiders head coach Jack Del Rio reacts against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the second half at Raymond James Stadium. Oakland Raiders defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 30-24 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

1. Penalties

Penalties, penalties and more penalties. And then some more penalties on top of that, and more penalties on top of that.

Yellow is officially the worst color in the world and the look of it disgusts me. This is probably a shared feeling of any Raiders fan that tuned into the game on Sunday.

23 penalties for 200 yards. That is indescribably awful, and historically bad. Literally, historically bad. The Raiders set a new NFL record for most penalties in a single game, and accrued the third most penalty yardage as well.

Not only that, but just the timing of many of these penalties was absolutely brutal. Negating a 45-yard connection from Carr to Crabtree, wiping out other big plays, and giving the Bucs multiple automatic first downs.

It was as embarrassing and as undisciplined of a performance you might ever see. 12-man on the field penalties were rampant as were other inexcusable penalties, and it was overall just an incredibly poor display of discipline.

Commit penalties at a rate anything close to this next week against Denver, and the Raiders lose by at least three scores. This has to be fixed immediately.

2. Special Teams

A week after special teams was one of the main reasons why Oakland won a game, this same group almost cost the Raiders the game this week.

Particularly Sebastian Janikowski.

The game was tied with just four seconds left in regulation — Derek Carr had just scrambled 13 yards to setup a 50-yard attempt for Seabass to win the game.

Wide left.

The NFL’s all-time leader in field goals over 50 yards, a player who has been reliable from distance for his entire career, blew it.

Then on the opening drive of overtime, the Raiders used 8 plays to move the ball 41 yards, setting up an attempt for Janikowski from 52 yards out.

Wide right.

Even Marquette King wasn’t his usually sharp self on Sunday. He still managed to down 4 out of 6 attempts inside Tampa’s 20-yard line, but he had two punts that were uncharacteristic of him.

There were three short-yardage tries that King will often down inside the 10-yard line, but he failed to that on any of those attempts. And there was another punt that Marquette shanked off the side of his foot, and if not for a fortunate bounce, would have given the Bucs the ball in Oakland territory.

The Raiders will need all three phases — offense, defense and special teams — to be at their best next week in Denver.

3. Turnover Battle

As already mentioned, the defense was awesome on Sunday. It was by far their best defensive showing of the year, and it should finally give the fans some reason to be optimistic moving forward.

But one area where the defense failed to capitalize was in the turnover department. It was a matchup that perfectly setup the Raiders to win this battle, but they had 1 turnover and created none.

Coming into the game, The Raiders had 13 takeaways, which was tied for the third highest mark in the league. They had 7 interceptions (4th most) and 6 fumble recoveries (tied for the 3rd most).

On offense, Oakland’s 5 giveaways were tied for the 2nd best in the league, with several other teams. They have the 4th lowest amount of interceptions thrown (3) and the 2nd lowest amount of fumbles lost (2). 13 takeaways and 5 giveaways gave Oakland a turnover differential of plus 8, tied for the 2nd best mark in the league.

Tampa Bay was a below average team in this regard. Their 9 takeaways ranked them as tied for 12th in the league, but their 12 giveaways is tied for the 9th most. That gives the Bucs a turnover differential of minus 3, tied for 23rd in the NFL.

So the deck was stacked in favor of the Raiders to create a few turnovers against an offense prone to doing just that.

With a Broncos team coming to The Town next Sunday night, the Raiders will need all the help they can get, and getting a few extra possessions thanks to turnovers could be the difference between a win or a loss. So let’s hope the defense can get one or two, and that the offense will take care of the ball.

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