Last Thursday night the Raiders were within striking distance of beating the Broncos. The Raiders lost 10-7 in Denver and had their opportunities to win that game, but just couldn’t get it done. When the dust settled, it was the game the Brock Bowers had that stuck out like a sore thumb.
The All Pro tight end had just one catch on three targets in the game. This a week after having a monster performance in his return from injury in which Bowers had 12 catches on 13 targets for 127 yards and three touchdowns.
Now, the Broncos defense is tough, but they were without top CB Patrick Surtain. Not only that, since when has any defense been able to take Bowers out a game like that? Even when he was playing hurt early this season, he still had at least four catches on five targets each game. And last season only once did he have fewer than four targets and three catches.
So, what happened? Raiders offensive coordinator Chip Kelly explains it, while taking a mea culpa.
“We have to get him involved. He’s obviously our number one threat out there and we got to continue to get him involved in terms of what we do,” Kelly said of Bowers.
“I didn’t do a good job in the Denver game. A lot of those plays we were supposed to go to him and we got sacked on them. Part of that was the protection and what Denver can do defensively. Going in we knew they had a great pass rush, so we were in a little bit more max protection and now you’re not being able to uncover him sometimes, so you allow them to double him, and do those other things but part of their scheme allows them to do that too. We’re real conscious of knowing what we have available this week and how we have to get the ball to those guys.”
Geno Smith was sacked a season-high six times in Denver. And he was pressured into incompletions a few other times. And it wasn’t always as simple as an oncoming rusher getting by an offensive lineman. On at least a couple of instances, it was the call having a running back taking on an edge rusher or missing the guy coming on the blitz. Those instances especially are on the play call.
To be fair, though, there were also a couple times when Geno Smith just flat out didn’t see Bowers when he was open. Whether he was staring down another receiver, or got rattled and heard footsteps that caused him to flee the pocket too soon. Consistent pressure can do that, but Geno has to keep his cool and survey the field. And Bowers should always be a priority in his reads.
There’s blame to go around for sure. But there’s no excuse for it. There’s simply no good reason the Broncos should have been able to take Bowers out of that game. Because it’s literally never happened before. Not with the Raiders and not at Georgia. Nor should it ever happen again.
