MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Las Vegas Raiders offense took some baby steps Sunday.
Baby steps aren’t going to snap a five-game losing streak, and they’re not going to put a smile on the players’ or coach Antonio Pierce’s face, but … baby steps, damn it.
While the Miami Dolphins scored every time they had the ball (six out of seven, actually, but the one was when time ran out in the first half), the Raiders settled for a silver lining. They set a season high with 22 first downs in the 34-19 loss. There weren’t a lot of fireworks with new interim offensive coordinator Scott Turner and his dad, Norv, but there was some improved efficiency even as the Raiders lost their sixth straight game and dropped to 2-8.
“We were moving the ball,” tight end Michael Mayer said. “We’ve just got to put the ball in the end zone.”
The Raiders did that only twice, with rookie Brock Bowers breaking through in the third quarter and Ameer Abdullah giving them hope with a fourth-quarter touchdown to get within 5 points.
Bowers put on his cape as usual and had 13 catches — the most by a rookie tight end in a game in NFL history — and a career-high 126 yards.
“Bowers is legit,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “He didn’t disappoint. He is going to be a player that everyone knows for years to come.”
The yards-after-catch specialist made his third touchdown of the season look easy when he turned the corner on safety Jordan Poyer on a short pass and sprinted the rest of the 23 yards down the sideline.
“He didn’t push me out of bounds … and that was it,” Bowers said. “I just catch the ball and run.”
Brockin’ and Rollin!#LVvsMIA | 📺 @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/tUq5NzKADV
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) November 17, 2024
Gardner Minshew II was better, completing 30 of 43 passes for 282 yards and the two touchdowns; his only interception came when the game was practically in the books.
Abdullah scored on a 10-yard catch-and-run to make it 24-19 with 4:23 left, but the Dolphins scored three plays later when tight end Jonnu Smith put on a cloak of invisibility and appeared 50 yards downfield.
Abdullah, a 10-year veteran, thought the offense felt better in its first game since the Turners took over for Luke Getsy, who was fired during the bye week.
“I think our timing in the passing game was a lot better,” Abdullah said. “I think we got the ball out a lot quicker, allowed our playmakers to make moves and run after the play. That’s when we’re at our best, letting (Bowers), (Jakobi Meyers), (Tre Tucker) and (Alexander Mattison) just play.”
But … the Raiders had only one play longer than 25 yards (the Dolphins had three), and they couldn’t run the ball again.
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Scratch that. The running backs couldn’t run, combining for 29 yards on 11 carries. (Zamir White got the start and had 9 yards on five carries, though it seemed like he had nowhere to go.) Receivers Meyers and Tucker ran twice for 27 yards.
Though Pierce bemoaned the lack of communication on defense, he was happy with how the offensive line of Kolton Miller, Jordan Meredith, Jackson Powers-Johnson, Jordan Meredith and DJ Glaze talked it up in their first game together as a unit.
“I thought the communication was clean,” Pierce said. “Still need to get the running game going. But I thought our front, there weren’t a lot of miscues up there. We just have to keep executing and strain a little bit more. … There were opportunities there for shots (downfield), but we didn’t get them down there again.”
The Raiders had the ball only twice in the first half thanks to three long Dolphins drives, and Las Vegas kicked field goals on each occasion.
“It definitely felt better, man,” Minshew said. “We didn’t have a lot of possessions, you know? Felt like we were efficient with the ones we did get.”
“We need to finish drives,” Bowers said.
Bowers might need more touches, then. He has 706 yards on 70 catches already and is the third player in Raiders history to record five-plus catches in six consecutive games in a single season. The only others were Tim Brown in 1994 (six-game streak) and Jerry Rice in 2002 (seven-game streak). It is the longest streak by any NFL tight end this season.
“Everything feels like it’s slowing down for me more every game,” Bowers said.
Abdullah was asked about what makes Bowers so special.
“Genetics,” he said, smiling. “And he is a consummate pro. He is one of the first guys to show up every single day. Does the same thing every single day. So he’s built up a confidence for himself.”
Now, the Raiders need the rest of their players who are playing for pride and not for the playoffs to follow suit.
Maxx Crosby: “We’re just playing for pride at this point.”
— Tashan Reed (@tashanreed) November 17, 2024
Minshew said spirits were down after the loss considering there was plenty of talk the last two weeks about hitting the reset button.
“Yeah, we’re down, man,” Minshew said. “But I tell you, I’ve been on teams where they’ve sent it in, but we’re not doing that. We practice hard, dude. We come up, we show up and lift on Mondays. Everyone’s doing the right things, man. We haven’t been getting the results and we’ve been plays short, but like, I feel like we continue on our process, continue trying to get better; it’s going to break for us.”
(Photo of Brock Bowers: Rich Storry / Getty Images)
