Bills collapse dents playoff hopes in 38-24 loss to Raiders

The Raiders cut Buffalo’s lead to 24-16 on Carr’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Crabtree with 5:17 left in the third quarter.

1-1 at Denver 1:25 p.m. The Chiefs had the lead and, just as we always talk about, they ran it down the Raiders throats in the fourth quarter to run out the clock. “Today was another example of that”.

That defeat dropped them to 6-6 on the season and into 10th place in the AFC standings. Gillislee picked up his second score of the day on a 2-yard run to further put the Raiders in the whole 24-9.

At the driver seat of Oakland’s comeback was quarterback Derek Carr. “You’ve got to put it behind you and bounce back and make plays”. Their offense is about as good as it gets.

The Bills showed some vulnerabilities on defense in the first half, giving up a few big running plays and leaving holes in the zone versus Oakland’s explosive offense, but some penalty luck and effective short yardage play helped the team to hold Oakland in check. McCoy finished with 130 yards rushing while Gillislee added 49 yards on the ground and two touchdowns.

Raiders defensive end Khalil Mack (52) celebrates after forcing a fumble, which he recovered, in the fourth quarter.

Buffalo is just the latest piece of Raider roadkill. That put the ball back in the hands of Oakland’s risky offense. “We felt like we controlled the game”. We have to look, too, as coaches. The Buffalo defense allowed four plays of 14-plus yards on Oakland’s ensuing drive, which ended with a 3-yard touchdown pass from Derek Carr to Michael Crabtree.

“Before we went on the field, I looked at him and said, ‘Go do what you do and be special.’ It’s nearly expected that he’s going to make plays”. You can’t ever have that happen to you. “This is a heck of an offense”. I don’t think we handle that well in any game. They were guys like Sammy Watkins, who only had nine catches coming into the game, Justin Hunter and Brandon Tate, who only had seven each, and tight end Gerald Christian, who was just called up from the practice squad.

ENCORE PERFORMANCE: A week after scoring on a 75-yard run against Jacksonville on the first play from scrimmage of the second half, McCoy struck big again to open the third quarter.

The third-year quarterback also maintains the highest mark in football in the fourth quarter with a quarterback rating of 120.8, per NBC Sports, en route to leading the Raiders to their best offensive output through 12 games since 1968. That’s when Tyrod Taylor stepped onto the field for the first time. It’s the first time Mack has come up with one of those to close out a win since he did it last week.

Here are three things we learned from the Raiders’ win Sunday.

If the Bills had one last-ditch effort in them, Mack wasn’t going to let that be realized. And they come at a time when Buffalo (6-6) is falling out of the playoff picture and in jeopardy of extending the NFL’s longest active postseason drought to 17 years. The Chiefs defeated the Raiders 26-10 in Oakland on October 16.

Oakland fell behind 24-9 following touchdowns on the first two drives of the second half for Buffalo (6-6) but then took the game over with 29 straight points and won their sixth straight.

“We knew we had to get those defensive stops and stay disciplined in our game plan”. It was depressing and in some ways I was glad they left because it gave me a chance to pick a new team from the pack, a new team to follow. (The offense) gave us a good lead.

It’s been a revolving door of swings and misses at the most important position in the National Football League, and a major reason why the Bills have missed the playoffs for 16-straight years. “You guys can figure it out”. The last two came on Latavius Murray runs from one and three yards out.