Getty Kansas City Chiefs vs. Oakland Raiders.
The Oakland Raiders have had a couple of days to soak in Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. While it’s easy to get down after a tough loss to a divisional rival, not everything is bad for Oakland. Jon Gruden’s squad has several reasons to be optimistic for 2019. One thing is clear: This is not the same team it was in 2018. This team is younger, faster and better. There are still growing pains the team has to go through, but the future is bright for the Raiders.
Benson Mayowa Is Getting Sacks
Before the Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garret put up a monster game on Monday Night Football, Benson Mayowa led the entire AFC in sacks with 3.5 through two games. The sack leader for Oakland in 2018 was Maurice Hurst, who had four. This is actually Mayowa’s second stint in Oakland. He only got two sacks while with the Raiders in 2014 and 2015. His career-best in sacks was in 2016 when he had six over the season. If he keeps it up, he’ll shatter that number in no time.
PJ Hall is going to get the initial pressure and Benson Mayowa gets his 4th sack of the season. What a pick up for #RaiderNation
The emergence of Mayowa is a pleasant surprise as Arden Key has yet to get a sack through two games. The Raiders were hoping that he would develop into more of a pass rush threat in 2019, but that hasn’t been the case yet. That being said, it won’t matter if Mayowa keeps getting multi-sack games.
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The Defense Shut out the Chiefs for Three Quarters
It’s easy to look at that brief chunk in the second quarter and come away thinking the Raiders have a terrible defense. However, it really isn’t true. The Oakland defense led Patrick Mahomes to the first scoreless first quarter of his career. Yes, Mahomes hasn’t made that many starts, but it’s still an impressive feat. What’s also impressive is that the defense shut them down after that second quarter. It would’ve been really easy for them to give up and let the Chiefs run up the score, especially with the offense being completely ineffective.
The Raiders may actually field a solid defense in 2019. Obviously, they need to limit the big mistakes that allowed the Chiefs to put up so many points in a short amount of time. This defense is still young and has a lot of room to improve.
Josh Jacobs Looks Like a Star
It’s been two games and Josh Jacobs is already the highest-graded rookie first-round pick from the recent NFL Draft, according to Pro Football Focus. Though he did leave the Sunday’s game a little bit banged up, he still put up a strong stat line and had a very impressive 51-yard run. He has 184 rushing yards through two games and is averaging 5.3 yards per carry. He has yet to make a dent in the receiving game, but that’s definitely going to come eventually.
Jacobs still needs to prove that he can handle the rigors of an NFL season, but he certainly looks like he has the skill to thrive. Based on his first couple of performances, he’s in for a big year if he can stay healthy.
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