Adrian Peterson helps Vikings run past Raiders 30-14

OAKLAND - It was the unchecked boxes that got the Raiders on Sunday.

Head coach Jack Del Rio said his team went into its contest against the Minnesota Vikings with three major directives, one for each phase of the game. On offense, the Raiders needed to protect quarterback Derek Carr and protect the ball. On defense they had to contain star running back Adrian Peterson. On special teams the point was to cover well against the Vikings’ dangerous return men.

Uncheck, uncheck, uncheck.

The three biggest plays featured breakdowns in those three key areas, and they added up to a 30-14 loss that dropped Oakland (4-5) out of a tie for the second AFC wild card spot.

“Look, they’re a good team,” Del Rio said of the 7-2 Vikings. “They played better than we did today. They coached better, they played better, they earned it. We have to take our lumps today and deal with it and move it.”

It wasn’t that the Vikings were far superior to the Raiders. They just came through with those pivotal plays - including two on consecutive snaps late in the game.

The Raiders were down 23-14 when they took possession with 3:43 remaining. But they had all three timeouts left, and didn’t have to burn any as they moved quickly downfield to the Minnesota 11. But there, on first-and-10, Carr tried to loft a timing pass to wide receiver Andre Holmes in the right corner of the end zone. Vikings cornerback Terence Newman stayed in front of Holmes, leaped to tip the pass, then caught it for the interception.

It was Newman’s second pick of the game, and this one hurt.

“It was the one time finally on that drive we kind of got a one-on-one, so I gave Andre a chance and, again, 23 (Newman) made a great play,” Carr said.

Holmes took responsibility for the turnover. “I’ve just got to come down with it. That’s the bottom line,” said the 6-foot-4 receiver, who has 6 inches on Newman. “I didn’t go as aggressive as I thought I would.”

In any case, the Raiders did not protect the ball as Del Rio had advised. And when Minnesota took over at its 20-yard line after the touchback, the Raiders lost track of Peterson, the six-time Pro Bowl pick who was suspended by the NFL during the 2014 season for disciplining his young son in an abusive manner. Peterson found a hole on the right side, turned on the jets and was gone on an 80-yard touchdown run.

That made it 30-14 with 1:50 left. Carr pushed the Raiders to the Minnesota 10, but the clock ran out after three incomplete passes there.

If those offensive and defensive failures were the final nails in the coffin, it was a special teams blunder that may loom as the real turning point.

Oakland’s only lead of the afternoon came 1:52 before halftime, when Holmes hauled in a 34-yard pass from Carr and scored against safety Andrew Sendejo. Sebastian Janikowski’s extra point put the Raiders up 14-13.

The lead lasted 13 seconds. Kickoff returner Cordarrelle Patterson fielded Janikowski’s short kick at the 7, picked up some blocks along the left sideline and ran for a 93-yard touchdown that allowed the Vikings to take a lead into the locker room at halftime.

“That was a huge play by them,” Carr said. “It kind of caught me off guard. I was sitting there doing the drive review and getting ready for the next series, and I looked up and the guy was already on their side of the field. Knowing who their returner was, when he gets in the open he’s so fast.”

Del Rio said it was supposed to be a squib kick by Janikowski. But with the wind making the task more challenging, the kicker sent it deeper than the design called for.

“Anytime you have it go all the way for a touchdown, it certainly wasn’t executed the way you look forward to it being executed,” Del Rio said. “ … The squib maybe went a little deeper and all the way to the top guy. We would have preferred to see one of the upbacks pick that up, keep it out of the other guy’s hands.”

No question, the Raiders did some good things Sunday. There were sequences in which Carr looked very sharp, especially in the second quarter, when he connected with tight end Clive Walford on a 10-yard touchdown pass in addition to hooking up with Holmes. The running game was solid, and the defense put consistent pass pressure on Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, sacking him four times and repeatedly moving him out of the pocket. Oakland’s Keith McGill blocked a field-goal attempt.

The negatives weighed more, though. The Raiders started terribly, falling behind 13-0 before the second quarter was five minutes old. The deficit might have been worse, but Minnesota tight end Kyle Rudolph dropped an easy catch in the end zone. Carr was under a lot of pressure himself, and his team committed eight penalties for 82 yards.

Most of all, the Raiders failed to keep Peterson bottled up. He had a modest 49 yards at halftime, but finished with 203 yards on 26 carries, the sixth 200-yard game of his career.

“You’ve gotta be sharp the whole game with that guy,” Oakland inside linebacker Malcolm Smith said. “Obviously, he made us pay.”

Now the Raiders hit the road for two games. The opponents, Detroit and Tennessee, aren’t as highly regarded as the Vikings. Then again, it’s never easy to win away from home in this league. Del Rio is confident his team is still in the hunt for a playoff berth, though.

“We’ve got plenty of bounce-back in us,” he said.

That will be determined over the next seven games.