Oh And!.... (yes I just quoted myself... deal with it... hahaha)....
- How about Bowman!? I don't care that he 'lost a step'. He signed about 3 hours before the game (oh I'm exaggerating) and performed right from start. Beat on a couple of plays, sure, if you want to nit-pick. Without him in the lineup, I'm not sure the Raiders win this game. Led the team in tackles, called the defensive plays, made some great plays...
- Loved the play call and execution by Irvin on the last drive by KC where he made sure Kelce didn't have a clean break from the line. Raiders only rushed 3... but the result was the only sack of the game. Where has that been all year?
Solid post, @kaso, and solid addendum. Like you, loved to see the nastiness come back to our O-line and us stepping up to get in opposing players' faces when Carr needs defending, before, during, or after a whistle.
Interesting take on Lynch's motivation, but regardless of why he did it, he simply shouldn't have. I love the guy, but he will get what he deserves. We definitely could have used him last night as I think the first time we got the ball on the two, before we had to score 4 straight TDs until one of them stuck, Lynch could have just run it in and ended the game. The question whether Downing would put him in there at that time is valid, though.
To that end, I believe how they are handling Lynch is a mistake. He doesn't seem to need to be protected from wearing down in-game, but that's almost how they are treating him in terms of frequency of use. Also don't think it's a factor of running Lynch more heavily in the last two Qs than the first two as opposing D's get tired (another valid approach I'd love to see us do). While he isn't as speedy, that was never his game, and he's just as violent of a runner as he was with the Hawks, so "old and lost a step" doesn't cut it.
It just may be the Raiders feel they have 3 great backs they should use through all games. Even if that was the case, would like to see us shove Lynch down D's throats if that's what is working, last last week vs SD. But we didn't. Lynch's usage is really puzzling to me.
re: PI no-call vs Cook -- refs were blowing it equally on both sides of the ball (though was fun to hear the KC fans whine about how one-sided it was in the game thread). I thought the refs could have called a MUCH tighter game. But also respect the fact that they seemed to blow calls equally against both teams (even if that wasn't purposeful) or that they may have been just letting the players play -- which is refreshing in todays NFL if it was purposeful in that way.
Good call-out on Washington's solid game, great to see him effective; agree that it was good to see the team come back from a demoralizing fluke TD and win the game in general; loving Romo in the booth too; great props call-out to Bowman who looked fine out there with only a few days' prep.
Sometimes, Mack and Carr and Cooper carry a game, like they did last night. It was a team effort, but great to see our Triple Threats step up and deliver together.