Jimmy Garoppolo didn’t try to dodge the blame Monday night.
He knew that his poor performance was the biggest reason the Las Vegas Raiders couldn’t pull off an upset on the road against the Detroit Lions.
In his return from a back injury, Garappolo only completed 10 passes for 126 yards and threw a key first-half interception.
“There are good days and bad days in this league, and that was definitely a bad one,” he said after the Raiders’ 26-14 loss. “There is no sugarcoating it — I needed to be better to give my teammates a chance.”
In the first quarter, with the Lions leading 3-0, Las Vegas linebacker Luke Masterson stripped receiver Josh Reynolds, giving the Raiders the ball at the Detroit 26.
On the next play, Garoppolo looked for Davante Adams down the right sideline, but the pass floated into the arms of Lions safety Kerby Joseph in the end zone.
Despite missing time, Garoppolo leads the NFL with nine interceptions.
“There are a lot of things that go into interceptions,” Raiders coach Josh McDaniels said. “But at the end of the day, we need a quarterback who knows we have to take care of the ball.”
The Lions put up 486 yards of offense, but the Raiders forced three turnovers — including a pick-six by cornerback Marcus Peters. The offense couldn’t take advantage.
“We got four stops in the red zone and three turnovers, so we had opportunities tonight,” McDaniels said. “But we couldn’t string together any plays in the passing game.”
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Garoppolo didn’t complete a pass to a wide receiver in the first half, and badly overthrew Adams twice in the second half when he was open behind the Lions’ secondary. After the second miscue, Adams slammed his helmet to the turf before taking a seat on the bench.
The Raiders quarterback finished the game with 89 yards of offense, thanks to six sacks for 49 yards, a week after Detroit allowed Lamar Jackson to put up 393 yards.
“We’ve got such a talented group in that locker room, guys who can do so many different things if we get them the ball in space,” Garoppolo said. “But I have to go out there and take advantage of those situations. There were a lot of little things, but it comes down to me having to play better football.”
Josh Jacobs wasn’t able to provide a spark in the running game, with the exception of one drive in the second quarter. He carried the ball seven times for 38 yards on that possession, capping it off with a three-yard touchdown run that got Las Vegas to 9-7.
In the rest of the game, though, he ran seven times for 23 yards.
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“We have to look at every part of our offense, because we’re not productive enough,” McDaniels said. “You obviously have to produce points to win games, and we’re not doing that. There’s a lot of football left, but we have to figure out a better way to do things.
“I think we can do that.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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