The Las Vegas Raiders managed just 27 yards on the run in Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens, but managed to pull out an unexpected 26-23 victory thanks to a fabulous performance from quarterback Gardner Minshew II.
Minshew completed 30 of 38 passes for 276 yards, a touchdown and an interception to help the Raiders to a 1-1 record on the season. Two drives late in the fourth quarter that resulted in 10 points made the difference in the comeback win on the road.
Minshew was busy with multiple targets all day.
“It was a great feeling, man,” Minshew said after the game. “Tay (Davante Adams) got involved, Brock (Bowers) made a play, Kob (Jakobi Meyers) caught a great ball. That’s how it can be, you know, and it’s a challenge to stay consistent.”
Adams and Bowers combined for 18 catches and 208 receiving yards and tore the Ravens defense to shreds throughout the game. A commanding performance like today gives Minshew and the rest of the Raiders team a lot of confidence after two weeks.
“I’m excited to continue to build on this momentum. I think everyone feels pretty good about it,” Minshew said. “There’s a lot of shots to clean up and we’ll do that, but I think everyone feels and believes in what we can do as an offense.”
For a team that had failed to get its running game going all day, Minshew stepped into action and delivered pass after pass late in the game to make up for the disappointing run game result.
Minshew posted nearly the same stat line last week in a loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, which resulted in just 10 points. The difference, however, was that the Raiders converted two of their three red zone opportunities against Baltimore, rather than missing just one trip to the red zone in last week’s loss.
As a team, the Raiders have yet to rush for more than 100 yards this season, but it’s promising to see their passing game perform so well against a quality defense just when they needed it most.
The Silver and Black face the Carolina Panthers next Sunday and expect a similar performance from their starting quarterback against a subpar Panther team.
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