There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the Raiders coming out of Week 16. The defense just played arguably their best performance in years, holding Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to 13 points. They harassed Mahomes all game long and the defense scored twice in the first half.
However, one concerning thing coming out of this game was the performance of Aidan O’Connell. After a huge day against the Chargers in Week 15, O’Connell did not complete a single pass in the final three quarters.
In a recent article by Paul Gutierrez of ESPN, he wrote about O’Connell’s rocky performance against the Chiefs on Christmas Day:
The rookie quarterback’s play was uneven at best — he did not complete a pass after the first quarter. He went 9-of-21 for 62 yards and a career-low passer rating of 50.3. With better play from O’Connell, the Raiders would have won this game by a landslide, thanks to the defense.
The good news is that the Raiders were able to survive a bad day on offense because of their defense. That would have never happened in years past as the Raiders never had this type of defense. Better days are coming for AOC, but this was easily the worst performance of his young career.
