Brock Bowers failed to make much of an impact for the second straight game as the Las Vegas Raiders fell 41-24 to the Washington Commanders on September 21 at Northwest Stadium.
Although Bowers is playing through a knee injury, it’s clear that he’s not the same player from Week 1. The Raiders star went off for 103 receiving yards in that win to open the season, but since then, he hasn’t come close to hitting that mark.
With the Raiders putting Bowers on the field despite his knee issue, the team’s radio play-by-play voice, Jason Horowitz, noted that his limited mobility makes it easier for opponents to shift attention elsewhere, since they don’t have to game-plan as heavily for the star tight end.
“I don’t know if there’s a percentage you could put on this, but not having a healthy Brock Bowers plays a role in this offense,” Horowitz said after the Raiders’ loss to the Commanders. Kirk Morrison has talked about it throughout the course of the broadcast against the Chargers and then [against the Commanders].
“Defenses are playing this team differently when Brock Bowers is not a threat to go for 50 yards, and I think that plays a major factor in what is different from Week 1 to now.”
Can the Raiders Get Their Run Game Going?
If Brock Bowers can’t get back to full strength because of his injury for Week 4, Las Vegas will need to lean on other options to spark the offense — and one of those is the ground game.
The Raiders haven’t found much consistency running the football through the first three weeks of the season. Still, they showed signs of progress against the Commanders, finishing with 93 yards on the ground.
Afterward, veteran quarterback Geno Smith emphasized that establishing the run early is key to making things easier for the offense as a whole.
“Extremely important [to establish the run],” Smith told reporters postgame. “But more importantly, we got to dominate the line of scrimmage — we got to own the line of scrimmage. That’s football in a nutshell. If you can win the line of scrimmage, you can win a lot of games.
“If you can win the line of scrimmage, control the turnover battle, get first downs, convert in the red zone, be great in situations — you can win a lot of games. So yeah, it’s a lot of things that we can do better, but I look forward to getting it right.”
Raiders Will Have to Continue to Count on Brock Bowers
Las Vegas’ offense took a hit in the loss to the Commanders, as the tight end position could be getting thinner for Week 4.
Michael Mayer exited the game against Washington in the first quarter after sustaining a head injury. Initially listed as questionable, the Raiders confirmed at the start of the third quarter that Mayer would not return, dashing fans’ hopes.
As a result, it puts more pressure on Bowers for the Raiders to get production out of the tight end position, even though their star player isn’t 100 percent. It will be interesting to see if another week of treatment can get Bowers looking like his old self.
Raiders Get Concerning Brock Bowers Take After Loss to Commanders