Versus: Sincere McCormick, Raiders offense gearing up to attack the Falcons

Dec 11, 2024 at 04:50 PM

Levi Edwards

Digital Team Reporter

The Las Vegas Raiders will be back on the national stage as they host the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football in Week 15.

Both teams have a lot on the line. For the Raiders, it's pride – vying to end their nine-game losing streak and defend their home grass. As for the Falcons, they're in a tough battle for the NFC South divisional title, which would be their first since 2016. Additionally, they have a four-game slide they're trying to overcome as well when they step into Allegiant Stadium.

With that in mind, here are three matchups to follow for the primetime affair.

Related Links

Raiders defense vs. Kirk Cousins

Kirk Cousins has been one of the more reliable, consistent quarterbacks in the league throughout his career. But that hasn't necessarily been the case recently.

The Atlanta Falcons started their 2024 season with a 6-3 record, including a 4-0 record against their NFC South opponents. In that stretch, Cousins was playing some of his best football to date with 2,328 passing yards, 69.1 completion percentage and a 17:6 touchdown to interception ratio.

However, things have taken a turn since Week 9 as Atlanta is currently on a four-game losing streak. Cousins' play has also taken a dip, throwing eight interceptions and no passing touchdowns in his last four contests.

Meanwhile, while the Raiders have had various struggles throughout the season, the defense is coming off one of its better showings. They forced three turnovers in the first half of their Week 14 outing against the Buccaneers and sacked Baker Mayfield four times. Additionally, the Silver and Black defense has totaled 22 quarterback hits in the last three games.

"This is a really explosive, dynamic offense with Kirk Cousins there," Antonio Pierce said. "Offensive line is playing well, plays good as a unit. We're going to have to be dialed in, and I thought last week our team against a very good, explosive offense in Tampa Bay for three and a half quarters did just that and we're going to need to do that for 60 minutes."

Sincere McCormick vs. Bijan Robinson

Pierce announced Wednesday morning that Sincere McCormick will remain the starting running back going into Week 15.

McCormick found his window of opportunity when Alexander Mattison and Zamir White went down with injuries. McCormick was elevated from the practice squad and hasn't looked back, averaging 5.5 yards per carry in his last three games. He rushed for a career-high 78 yards and 15 carries against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the most rushing yards from a Raiders back since Week 7.

"The one thing about him, he was ready," Pierce said. "And what we've seen in practice and what you're now seeing in the game has been that consistent player that's worked, that grinds, has taken care of the opportunity, taking care of the football, running behind his pads, giving us that spark. And the last few weeks, each and every week – I think he's gotten 6, 12 and yesterday I believe 15 or 16 carries – this is going to keep improving, and it will again this week."

The former UDFA has a tough head-to-head matchup against one of the league's premier running backs in Bijan Robinson. The 2023 first-rounder from Texas has taken a firm grip over being the lead back in Atlanta, ranking top 10 in the league in carries (215) and rushing yards (977). He's also a threat in the passing game by averaging over 30 receiving yards a game.

"He's a really good player," Pierce said of Robinson. "I've watched him since high school, college. Dynamic player. Reminds me when I played Reggie Bush. I mean, first guy doesn't tackle him, line him up at wide receiver, out the backfield, run game impressive. A really, really good football player. We've got our hands full with this one. We're going to need all 11 Raiders to make this guy get on the ground and tackle him. It's going to be a difficult challenge, obviously a tremendous player, but our guys are up for it."

Brock Bowers vs. AJ Terrell

The past four weeks Brock Bowers has been primarily shadowed by the opposing team's No. 1 cornerback.

While it's been a difficult challenge for the Raiders offense to keep Bowers heavily involved with the defensive attention he's receiving, it shows truly how dominant the rookie tight end has been this year. He leads the Raiders in nearly every receiving statistic and last Sunday, broke the NFL record for most receptions by a rookie tight end in a single-season. He currently ranks top five in the league in receptions (87) and receiving yards (933).

With that being said, the Raiders can't afford to force feed Bowers while he's tightly covered – or it could end up like the interception to Tykee Smith in Week 14. Bowers has caught 30 passes of his 45 targets over the last four games, equating to a 67 catch percentage.

"He's now becoming, obviously, a key factor for us, but also a key factor for teams to stop," Pierce said Monday. "And we are never going into a game not thinking about throwing to Brock, let's put that out there first and foremost. He's our number one option and probably our last option, we'll go through that. But you've got to be smart with the ball, and we can't force throws, because that happened in the game as well. Forced the throw and we got interceptions. So we got to be smart with that. But again, we are a more efficient offense when we get Brock going."

The Falcons will more than likely deploy Second-Team All-Pro cornerback AJ Terrell to cover Bowers. He has recorded two interceptions and five pass deflections in 2024, however he's allowed a career-high 73 completion percentage as a nearest defender. Finding ways to get Bowers open against Terrell and the Falcons secondary will be imperative on Monday night.

1 / 80

Nick Varzandeh, Danny Reyes and Evan Pledge from Make-A-Wish Foundation view an Allegiant Stadium model during a visit to Intermountain Health Performance Center.