The Las Vegas Raiders have had a miserable season to forget, which was capped off by a loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday. However, the lone bright spot on the team, rookie tight end Brock Bowers, continued his impressive season in historic fashion.
Bowers dominated the typically stout Chiefs defense, hauling in ten receptions for 140 yards and a touchdown.
On paper, his great performance, which included a number of key catches on the final drive of the game, should have been enough for the Raiders to come away with the win.
However, the Raiders found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again. Raiders center Jackson Power-Johnson botched the snap on a play with 15 seconds left in the game while the team was in field goal range. The Chiefs would recover the fumble, escaping with a win by the skin of their teeth.
From a team perspective, the game couldn’t have gone worse, as it was truly a devastating way to lose a game against a division rival.
But with that being said, Bowers had himself quite a day individually, joining an elite category of rookie tight ends thanks to his great game.
With the great game, Bowers surpassed 800 receiving yards for the season, currently sitting at 884 yards on the year. With that, Bowers became just the second tight end in NFL history to ever reach 800 or more receiving yards in the first 12 games of his rookie season. Only Mike Ditka has ever done this before.
The Raiders may not find too many answers from this season that will help them out in the future. Their quarterback situation still looks bleak and it’s still very unclear whether Antonio Pierce will pan out as an NFL head coach.
However, they did discover one thing this year. Brock Bowers is quite clearly a star in the making and a valuable piece for the team’s future.
Bowers will look to further improve on his great year thus far in a Week 14 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where it will likely be another uphill battle from a team perspective to end their eight-game losing streak.
