Oakland Raiders: 3 Burning Questions Following Week 2 Loss vs. Broncos

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No. 2: Is a second-half collapse in games going to be a theme?

The Raiders went into halftime with a 12-0 shutout lead in Denver. They were so dominant in the first half in all facets of the game. Yet for whatever reason it is, they can’t keep it up when they come out of halftime. They only managed to score seven points and were shutout in the fourth quarter, while giving up 20 points.

So pretty much, the Raiders had a 12-point handicap and still lost the game.

Is a second-half collapse in games going to be a theme for the season? I doubt it. This team is still settling in to everything. You can see the clear difference from this game to the one they played on Monday night. It’s going to take some time for this team to reach its potential. A step in the right direction in this game was seeing Derek Carr shred the Broncos defense.

That’s just one example where we must be patient.

Still, I wouldn’t blame you if you had concerns. In two second halves so far, the Raiders have only scored seven points. Remember they were shutout in the last half against the Rams. However, I will argue that these two collapses aren’t similar. On Monday night, that second-half performance was a true collapse. On Sunday, it was more of a collapse of conditioning. The heat was at an all time high in Denver that day, and one needs to account for the mile-high altitude.

By the fourth quarter, most of the players were gassed. It’s hard to keep a drive going or make stops on defense when you’ve battling for a long time. That’s likely why head coach Jon Gruden went conservative on a couple of drives. He wanted to drain the clock to get the game over with because his players were exhausted.

However, that idea was one of the reasons why the Raiders had a second-half collapse.

Regardless, this team will get their second-half performances on track. That’s why they call it “midseason form.” because that’s when you’re supposed to be at your best.

These next few weeks should be indicators to see if the Raiders’ track is in a loop or steady uphill ride.

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