The Raiders lost a heartbreaker to the Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon and the play that sealed the game was a blocked field goal by Chicago cornerback Josh Blackwell with 38 seconds remaining in the game.
The Bears had come close to blocking kicks earlier in the game and according to Blackwell, their own long snapper picked up on a key detail earlier in the week from Raiders’ long snapper Jacob Bobenmoyer.
“Throughout the week, Scott Daly had given us a little tip,” Bears cornerback Josh Blackwell said after the game. “The [Raiders] snapper would move the ball right before he would snap it, and the first two we got really good jumps. I’m like, ‘I’m close, I’m gonna get one.'”
It will be interesting to see how much traction Blackwell’s comments get, and if the Raiders find something to Bobenmoyer’s technique that needs to be adjusted.
Overall, the Raiders have bigger problems than a twitchy long snapper, and until Geno Smith is able to avoid interceptions (he currently leads the NFL with 7), it’s going to be a grueling season for Pete Carroll in his first season in Las Vegas.
For Carroll, Sunday’s loss probably stung a little more than most. Carroll interviewed with the Bears in the offseason before the decision was made in Chicago to hire Ben Johnson.
Johnson was reportedly the Raiders’ first choice to their next head coach, but Johnson’s agent later confirmed that he was only using Tom Brady and the Raiders as leverage to get more money from the Bears.
“Tom Brady absolutely [made] an extremely compelling case that gets you to listen. The whole thing ‘Ben to the Raiders… great sources’ and all the other stuff, that was never right,” Johnson’s agent, Rick Smith, said in January.
“Sometimes, going back to my job, things go viral that you’re like ‘I got to put a break on this’ and sometimes things go viral like ‘No, this is good. I like this’ and that viral thing [about the Raiders] was ‘I like this. Let’s just leave that out there.’”
x: @raidersbeat
Sounds a lot like the entire secondary following Geno’s eyes to the ball.
It was nice to see Maxx show up for a game this year. Hopefully it wasn’t a one and done.
Geno needs to fix this Int issue, otherwise he’s just an overpaid AOC. Enough of this taking accountability. STOP throwing the dang ball to the other team!
Geno throws picks. Marc Wilson reincarnate.
AOC was ruined by the coaching carousel and terrible line play. He had a big ceiling coming in. Now he’s Carrbage..
What really sucks is having a road game at home. The fans need to leave your costumes at home and bring your lungs and use them. You should leave the game and your voice behind. I did it when they were in Oakland. Stop trying to get Camera time and sacrifice something beside your money.
That’s what it means to bleed, silver and black.
So in today’s PC Pete says that JPJ had a nice game and he’s earned the right to keep competing. And when Geno got brought up it was like a mother defending his criminal child. The kid did nothing wrong.
Sick of this staff & stick of Brady/Spytek’s excuses. Could’ve had Dart/Membou but all these losers did was draft a luxury RB & trade down to make people think they’re geniuses.
Geno Smith and the coaches lost the game, everyone else had pulled together as a team and gave us a chance.
Someone explain why Donte Thornton is a starter. This dude does nothing game after game, he can’t even get open. Why does this dude start?