The Raiders squandered an opportunity to pick up their second win of the new campaign, but an arguably misjudged call ultimately led to their 23-18 loss.
Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels believes there were two ways to skin the cat in their week 3 encounter, opting to go for a field goal, trailing by eight points and with 2.22 left on the clock.
You have two choices there,” the HC said. “You try to make it a five-point game where you have an opportunity to win it with a touchdown if you get the ball back. Or you try to go for it there, and if you happen to convert you have to make the two-point conversion, all the rest of it.
“So, those are the decisions you’ve got to make. I thought we did a decent job putting ourselves in third down there the next series with the defense to try to have a play to get off the field, and we just didn’t handle that play very well,” he said after the game.
The Steelers have now beaten the Browns and the Raiders in back-to-back tight games, after a disappointing opening day loss to the 49ers.
The Las Vegas head coach gambled on his decision to take the FG, and win back the possession, and go for the win. Trailing 23-12, he could have played for the TD first, exerting more pressure on the fading Steelers, but McDaniels took a claculated risk.
The Raiders were out of the game, trailing 24-7 with 11 minutes to go, but Jimmy Garoppolo threw for a one yard TD then they collected thew two point conversion.
With momentum, a bit of luck and a close shave they could have got more out the game, especially after Garoppolo threw an intercept from their 15-yard line with 12 seconds left.
