Raiders contain Jaguars, earn first victory of season

Originally published on Silver & Black Report on Sept. 15, 2013

On 2nd and goal, Jones-Drew attempted to take a carry outside but Woodson leaped over a blocker to grab the upper body of Jones-Drew and pull him down as he flew by.

"You know, sometimes you have to leave your feet," Woodson said of the tackle. "He was trying to stretch the play outside and it looked like he was slowing down and wasn’t going to be able to get the corner and I just wanted to get to him."

The Raiders were able to continue with their new-found ability to pressure the quarterback, adding five sacks today to give them nine total for the year. The Raiders had just 25 sacks all last season. Safety Usama Young, who entered the game due to an ankle injury to Tyvon Branch, recorded 1.5 sacks.

"I think it’s just a combination of rush and coverage," Allen said of his pass rush. "I think there’s some times where we do a pretty nice job in coverage and give our guys an opportunity to get to the quarterback. We try to be multiple and send several different guys in different directions and then I think our rush has continued to improve. I think guys have continued to get better at rushing the quarterback."

With the Jaguars defense focusing on stopping Pryor, running back Darren McFadden was able to get his game going as he carried the ball 19 times for 129 yards. Though McFadden did have a late-game fumble that came after he busted out for a 27-yard gain on first down. If McFadden can keep it going, it will relieve a lot of the focus that defenses would direct at Pryor.

"I think Darren had a good day with the exception of the fumble there at the end of the game; that’s something that can’t happen," Allen said. "He knows that. But I thought he was able to run the ball effectively. I believe he had three runs of over 20 yards and that’s the way the running game operates. You’re going to get a lot of two, three, four-yard runs and then you’re going to be able to pop one. That’s what we were able to do today and we had a couple opportunities to get him on the safety and we had some been gainers."

Pryor was able to add 50 rushing yards on nine carries, though only threw for 126 yards on 15/24 throwing. But, Pryor did avoid turning the ball over as he did twice in the season-opener last week at Indianapolis.

"I think he did protect the ball, which was a positive," Allen said of his young quarterback. "I think, I’ll have to go back and look at the tape as far as exactly how his decision making was, but listen, that’s always going to be a key for us is to make sure we protect the football and make sure we don’t turn the ball over. We only had one in the game and that came at the very end of the game, so our ability to protect the football as the game goes on is critical to our success."

Raiders Janikowski missed another field goal Sunday against the Jaguars.
Though the Raiders offense was able to move with 340 total yards, they largely struggled to finish the drives with touchdowns and were forced to settle for field goals by Sebastian Janikowski. Though Janikowski had four field goals, he did miss a 35-yard attempt with punter Marquette King holding. The powerful kicker didn't miss a field goal from inside of 50 yards all last season, but has now missed two in the young season with King holding. It all comes down to new chemistry and the Raiders would sure enjoy to have the consistent Janikowski they had last season.

The defense did let up at the end by allowing the Jaguars to drive down the field and score a touchdown late in the game. After a failed two-point conversion, the Jaguars attempted an onside kick but wide receiver Rod Streater was able to secure the ball. There, the Raiders attempted to run the clock out but had to punt the ball back to the Jaguars, who ran out of time in their comeback attempt.

The Raiders held the Jaguars to just 248 total yards, 99 of which came on their final two drives in the final three minutes.

Allen will need to have his defense playing as well as possible as they head to Denver to take on Peyton Manning and the Broncos on Monday Night Football next week.

Pryor and company are well aware, and is ready to focus on his next week's matchup instead of celebrating his first career victory as a starting quarterback.

When asked if he took anything away from earning his first career victory as a starting quarterback, Pryor kept it simple:

"No. I’m ready to go play Denver."

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