The Las Vegas Raiders are running out of chances to turn the season around. Week 9 against the Jacksonville Jaguars should be a prime opportunity to get another win.
While the Jaguars have been a better team than the Raiders, it was just revealed that star rookie Travis Hunter won’t be playing due to injury. That’s a huge blow. Plus, the Raiders are finally getting healthy.
Tight end Brock Bowers has missed three games due to a knee injury, and defensive end Maxx Crosby popped up on the injury report this week. Luckily, Las Vegas won’t be without either of them.
During his Friday press conference, head coach Pete Carroll announced that both Bowers and Crosby will be playing. Defensive tackle Adam Butler is also set to play. Carroll noted that the only players who aren’t in line to play are the ones who are on Injured Reserve.
This is good news for the Raiders, as they’ve been battling injuries all season. If the Raiders can’t beat a banged-up Jaguars team at home coming off the bye week, it’s clear they have bigger problems than injuries, so they can’t afford to lose in Week 9.
Bowers Draws Praise From Jaguars
Bowers had the greatest season for a rookie ever last season, but hasn’t been able to make an impact in Year 2. Now that he’s healthy, he could be looking to make up for lost time.
Jaguars head coach Liam Coen knows his team will have its hands full on Sunday.
“I had a lot of experience with him in the SEC at Kentucky,” Coen said, via Raiders.com . “Played against him multiple times, thought he was extremely advanced at that time. For a second-year player, he gets in and out breaks so well. I know he was like 40 something inch vertical coming out of high school. He is a very good athlete. He’s what you define as a football player, I mean, he just has a knack for getting open. He’s harder to tackle than maybe just looking at the tape. He’ll break tackles, drag people down, he knows how to wiggle and separate and also the contested catch ability. Very good player, have a lot of respect for him.”
Coen Talks Crosby
Crosby hasn’t been getting a lot of help on defense, but he’s still finding ways to make an impact. The Jaguars won’t be sleeping on him when the two teams play.
“He is creature for sure,” Coen said of Crosby. “Just the strain, the relentless effort, the batted balls, they lead the National Football League right now in tipped balls as a defense, as a group. So long that initially, like if your eyes as a quarterback are maybe at your number one read right away and it’s like quick game or whatever it is, he does a great job of getting his hands on balls and then if it is a little bit of a longer developing pass play, well that’s when you just kind of see him relentlessly strain. He’s just so long in terms of his legs, the bounding, his ability to get to the quarterback. And then the way he’s played the run, they’ve played the run well as a defense all year as well.”
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