There are so many little things that can make or break a play. In those two INTs I showed, Love to Watson, were an example of what can go wrong, and did. The passes were both potentially catch-able, with the right receivers being the target. Watson doesn't have that experience yet. Think of Jordy Nelson. The first pass would have never been an INT. Nelson would have turned him inside out to get at the ball, and if he couldn't catch it, rest assured the defender wouldn't. On the second one, Jordy would have seen it was going to be a jump ball, and dug in, holding his position, and went up for the ball. He would either have caught it, or the defender would have seen a flag fly for interference. Watson will learn, we hope. It's what makes a receiver a #1. If you ain't got that inside, and fall away from the catch point, you're never going to be a dependable #1.
Now, look at the passes themselves. We could say they were bad passes because they were intercepted. They were also passes that could have been caught. I won't fault Love for them. It was a lack of experience on both their parts, that made it an INT.
As for the results of the passing game, I won't throw Love under the bus for it either. He had very little time to make decisions on his passes. The line didn't do much in the way of blocking, to give him time to make the throws.
Dillon did not do a bad job running the ball. He was constantly being hit behind the line of scrimmage. When that's happening, your forward momentum is negated, and he made yardage because he was willing it happening. I think he did as well as almost anyone in the league could do under those same circumstances.
Don't let the fact that the Raiders only scored 17 points make you feel like the defense played that well. They continued to play soft against receivers, even when they had short yardage, and gave up a lot of short passes that substituted well for runs. Good teams will eat us alive if they play like that against them.
