Getting outperformed on offense and defense is a habitual exercise for the Las Vegas Raiders. But rarely—like Blue Moon rarely—are the Silver and Black special teams overshadowed (Daniel Carlson included). Such was the case in the Raiders 23-18 home-opening loss to the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers.
Raiders, Daniel Carlson, even A.J. Cole can’t catch a break…
Las Vegas’ elite kicker and punter combo of Carlson and A.J. Cole III were outshined by their respective counterparts in Pittsburgh’s Chris Boswell and Pressley Harvin III.
Boswell, the placekicker since 2015, showed off his tremendous leg, drilling all three of his field goal attempts, including a 57-yard blast, and both of his points after to account for 11 of the Steelers’ 23-point output. His special team batterymate Harvin was a bomber himself, with six punts that went for 323 yards (a healthy average of 53.8 yards per boot) and a long of 63. Most impressively, Harvin dropped three of his boots inside the Raiders’ 20-yard line.
Flip it over to the Raiders, and Carlson connected on his lone field goal that went into the books (a 26-yard gimme that cut Pittsburgh’s advantage to 23-18) and drilled his point after for a meager four-point output. His kick squad brethren Cole punted five times for 262 yards (a robust 52.4 average) with a long of 60. But only one of his boots was down inside the 20 with another booth going into the end zone for a touchback.
In a battle of the bland, the specialists were given plenty of work, but the Black and Yellow were beaming compared to their Silver and Black counterparts.
Everyone needs to get their s*** together…
Las Vegas can’t afford a repeat performance where its kick squad is outdone, especially considering the team can’t put anything together consistently on offense and defense. Special teams boss Tom McMahon is supposed to have the kickers that no one worries about; they’ll get the job done no matter what, excel at it, and outperform their counterparts.
Not last Sunday night.
Carlson and Cole will get their opportunities as the season progresses. At 1-2, the Raiders are slated to face the Los Angeles Chargers (also 1-2) in an AFC West showdown at SoFi Stadium in Southern California. The Raiders offense is sluggish, only converting 12 of 31 third downs (38.7%), which puts them in the middle of the league pack at 17th overall. So Cole is going to get his chances to pin opponents deep.
The red zone woes persist for the Las Vegas Raiders (shocker)…
Las Vegas is once again middling in red zone performance, making eight total trips inside the opponent’s 20-yard line but coming away with only four touchdowns (50% rate), giving the team the 21st overall mark amongst the 32 squads. Thus, Carlson will get his field goal tries from gimme range if the Raiders can’t make more frequent end zone visits.
Daniel Carlson is a meager 3-for-3 on field goal attempts with a long of 47. He’s also 4-for-4 on extra points. His touchback rate on kickoffs is solid, as 8 of his 11 boots resulted in a touchback—72.7%—and his kickoff average so far is the highest in his career at 66.3 yards.
A.J. Cole, on the other hand, has nine punts on the year for 460 yards (51.1 yards average). If that keeps up, that would represent a career-high average (his best mark was in 2021 at 50.0 on 64 boots). There’s only been two return attempts on his punts—for five yards—giving Cole a very healthy 48.3 net yards average per punt. Only three of his boots have been dropped or downed inside the 20, and his 33.3% inside the 20 rate marks the lowest of his career so far.
*Top Photo: Getty Images
