MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Any hopes the Las Vegas Raiders had of a late-season surge and climbing back into the AFC playoff race took a significant hit Sunday.
The Raiders (2-8) dropped their sixth straight when they allowed points on six of Miami’s seven drives and lost to the Dolphins 34-19.
“You can always make excuses and point to other things about details,” Raiders defensive Maxx Crosby said. ”Just playing for pride at this point.”
Coming off a bye week in which coach Antonio Pierce fired three offensive assistants, including coordinator Luke Getsy, was not sufficient to stop the skid.
Gardner Minshew completed 30 of 43 for 282 yards and two touchdowns and tight end Brock Bowers continued his standout rookie season with 13 catches for 126 yards.
“A lot of positives to build on and I love the group we have,” Minshew said. “We’re just going to show up and keep going to work.”
Under interim offensive coordinator Scott Turner, Bowers was targeted 16 times and his 23-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown in the third quarter got the Raiders within 17-12.
“There were definitely a few plays in there for me, for sure,” Bowers said. “It’s just my job to just catch the ball and get yards and that’s about it.”
The Raiders problem on Sunday was keeping the Dolphins off the field. Miami opened the game with a drive of 8:13 capped by Tua Tagovailoa’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Jonnu Smith. The Dolphins’ second drive consumed 8:22 and Jason Sanders ended it with a 31-yard field goal and 10-3 lead in the second quarter.
The drive that sealed the Raiders’ loss was the byproduct of a busted coverage. Tagovailoa found an open Smith at the Raiders 30 and he ran it in for a 57-yard touchdown to put Miami ahead 31-19 with 3:19 remaining.
“Third downs, penalties on critical situations there,” Pierce said. “We had two third down on penalties where we had the option to get off the field that led to scoring drives as well, and then miscommunication obviously on the deep ball.”
The Raiders failed to force a punt or get a turnover.
“They did a good job of getting rid of the ball quickly,” Crosby said. “I felt we did a good job of stopping the run. There’s a lot of things you have to look at. You just have to keep finding ways to improve.”
Raiders tight end Michael Mayer returned Sunday. He was placed on the non-football illness list on Oct. 11. Mayer caught one pass for 5 yards.
“I was still running routes and all that good stuff, so I was keeping everything in my mind,” Mayer said. “When I came back, it wasn’t very hard to sort of reiterate and sort of do the things that we were doing before I left.”
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The Associated Press
