Nevertheless, the offense kept fighting. Smith went 9-of-10 on a seven-minute drive to get the Raiders back in the end zone for a second time. Bowers snagged a ridiculous one-handed catch for his second score of the game.
“Ball was thrown at me, I just came down and caught it,” he said on Raiders Gameday. “It wasn’t too crazy of a play, just making the catch.”
In his second game this season with multiple touchdown receptions, Bowers finished with a game-high 63 yards on four catches.
A possession later, the Chargers put the nail in the coffin with a touchdown run at the goal line by Patterson.
Now falling to 2-10, Carroll gave a honest evaluation of his offense with Olson taking over as lead playcalling for a team that came into the game ranked 31st in scoring offense.
“Offensively, to have an expectation that we’re gonna flip-flop and all of the sudden be ripping, would’ve like to have seen that but that didn’t happen,” Carroll said. “We’re a ways away.”
There were a few noticeable improvements when calculating in Bowers’ dynamic performance and Smith finishing with a 107.4 passer rating and 78.3 percent completion percentage.
“Everybody communicated really well,” Carroll said. “We had no problem functioning and all that. In a couple days time, that’s a nice accomplishment by those guys but we’ll get a lot better.”