Marcus Mariota vs. Oakland Raiders: 17/37, 218 Yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs

3rd Quarter

Pass #19

Situation: 1st and 10 TEN 20
Description: Q3-(10:45) M. Mariota Pass Incomplete Short Right to H. Douglas (D. Amerson)

Mariota (#8) cannot afford to have his passes dropped like this if he going to be a successful NFL quarterback. Mariota’s first read coming off the play action fake is to Douglas (#83) on the comeback route. Amerson (#29) is right on Douglas’s hip, but an outside and short throw is possible to Douglas if Mariota throws the ball with good timing. Mariota throws the pass with great timing as he throws the ball right before Douglas is out of his break. The pass location is also excellent as it is to Douglas’s outside shoulder and low. A great throw will beat good coverage every time and Mariota’s throw is great here. Douglas just lets the ball slip through his hands for the incompletion and Mariota deserves much better after throwing this pass. (10/19, 131 Yards, 1 TD)

Pass #20

Situation: 2nd and 10 TEN 20
Description: Q3-(10:38) M. Mariota Incomplete Pass Deep Right to H. Douglas. Penalty on OAK-T. Carrie, Defensive Pass Interference, 14 Yards, Enforced at TEN 20 - No Play

First and second down Mariota (#8) is a different QB than third down Mariota in this game. Mariota’s first read is to Douglas (#83) on the seam route and he sees that Douglas has beaten Carrie (#38) with a quick outside move. Mariota makes the right read in going to Douglas as there is no safety help over the top (The Raiders are in Cover 1) and Carrie is already a step behind. It is impossible to say if Mariota’s pass was in the right location due to the pass interference of Carrie, but I like how decisive he was in the throw (he got the ball out of his hand at the top of his drop) and his idea of throwing it to Douglas’s outside because Carrie is inside of Douglas.

Pass #21

Situation: 1st and 10 TEN 34
Description: Q3-(10:34) M. Mariota Pass Incomplete Deep Left to K. Wright (D. Amerson)

It’s tough to determine if this slightly underthrown pass by Mariota (#8) is due to a lack of arm strength, the pass rush bearing down on him, or the driving downpour. Mariota comes off of the play action fake and his first read is to Wright (#13) on the out and up route. As soon as Amerson (#29) breaks on what he thinks is an out route, Mariota knows he has Wright for a big gain and gets ready to throw the pass. As he is about to throw the pass, Ellis gets around C Andy Gallik (#69) and is right in the face of Mariota. Mariota, to his credit, does not flinch with the pressure in his face, steps into the throw, and takes the big hit when he makes the throw to Wright. The pass is slightly underthrown though and a great diving play by Amerson knocks the pass away from Wright. The decision-making process by Mariota on this play is on point, but his throw wasn’t good enough. (10/20, 131 Yards, 1 TD)

Pass #22

Situation: 3rd and 5 TEN 39
Description: Q3-(9:42) M. Mariota Pass Incomplete Short Right to A. Fasano [K. Mack]. Penalty on OAK-T. Carrie, Defensive Holding, 5 Yards, Enforced at TEN 39 - No Play

This is the first third down pass by Mariota (#8) that I felt comfortable with while watching the tape. Mariota’s first read on this play is to Green-Beckham (#17) on the deep curl route. Thrope (#31) has great positioning though as he is on Green-Beckham’s inside hip and Mariota has nowhere to throw the ball. Mariota gets off his read quickly though (he was delayed looking downfield due to the poor snap), which is a departure from his previous 3rd down throws. He goes through his progression and sees that Fasano (#80) has gotten Mays (#27) behind his inside hip and is open to an outside throw on the curl. Mariota makes the right read in throwing to Fasano and is accuracy is good enough as the ball ends up being to the outside of Fasano. This isn’t the easiest catch for Fasano to make as Fasano has to extend for the ball, but he should make this catch. Instead, he drops the pass and the Titans gets bailed out by a holding call on Carrie (#38) against Walker (#82). Mariota did his job on third down for the first time all game.

Pass #23

Situation: 1st and 10 OAK 45
Description: Q3-(8:55) M. Mariota Scrambles Right End Pushed Out of Bounds at OAK 38 for 7 Yards (K. Mack)

This is a really hard play to judge Mariota (#8) on. On one hand, Mariota’s first read gets open late as Green-Beckham (#17) gets open on the go route because Carrie (#38) lets Green-Beckham get even with him before transitioning out of his backpedal and Woodson (#24) jumps the dig route of Walker (#82). If Mariota is able to buy enough time in the pocket for Green-Beckham to get open, Mariota has his second touchdown pass. On the other hand, the pass rush from the Raiders is on him pretty quickly as DE Shelby Harris (#75) splits Gallik (#69) and Spain (#60) and flushes Mariota to his right. Mariota is drifting away from Green-Beckham and a throw to Green-Beckham may have taken more arm strength then Mariota has (especially with the rain). Mariota scrambling away from the pressure was the safe play for sure and he does get a good gain on first down, but it may not have been the ideal play from him to make. With a rookie QB, the safe play is usually the best play so Mariota wasn’t exactly wrong to scramble. But he missed a great opportunity to throw a game-changing pass.

Pass #24

Situation: 1st and 10 OAK 33
Description: Q3-(7:48) M. Mariota Pass Deep Left to A. Fasano to OAK 16 for 17 Yards (C. Woodson)

The weather has to have thrown this pass off for Mariota (#8). Mariota’s first read coming off the play action fake is to Fasano (#80) on the corner route. Both Lofton (#50) and Mayowa (#95) bite on the play action fake and Fasano is wide open to the deep outside due to Carrie (#38) running with the go route of Douglas (#83). Mariota sees this and quickly makes the right decision to throw the ball to Fasano. Mariota tries to throw this ball with touch, but it must have slipped out of his hand slightly as the pass is a duck to Fasano. Fasano is able to get underneath the ball to make the catch but if this pass is thrown on target, Fasano has a chance for a touchdown. (11/21, 148 Yards, 1 TD)

Pass #25

Situation: 2nd and 7 OAK 13
Description: Q3-(6:27) M. Mariota Pass Short Left to H. Douglas for 13 Yards and Touchdown. Penalty on OAK-N. Thorpe, Defensive Pass Interference, Declined

It’s hard to be critical of a quarterback for a TD pass, but Mariota’s (#8) throw is off on this play. Mariota’s first read is to Douglas (#83) on the go route. Douglas runs a great route as he gets Thrope (#31) to bite on the fake hitch route and blows by him. Mariota makes the right read to got to Douglas, but he gets somewhat lucky with this pass. Mariota throws this pass with a lot of touch, but this isn’t the right type of throw this close to the end zone. He needs to throw this ball with a lot of zip instead and rifle it in Douglas. Instead, the ball floats and Douglas has to slow down on his route to catch the pass. This allows Thrope to catch up to Douglas, but lucky for Mariota, Thrope runs into Douglas clumsily and Douglas is able to keep concentration for the catch. If Mariota is going to throw this ball with touch, he needs to throw this pass earlier and let Douglas run underneath the pass (12/22, 161 Yards, 2 TDs)

Pass #26

Situation: Two Point Conversion Attempt
Description: M. Mariota Pass to D. Green-Beckham is Complete. Attempt Succeeds

Mariota (#8) is very comfortable out of the pocket and it shows on this two point conversion. Mariota is running a bootleg pass and has an outside to inside progression in his reads. His first read is to Douglas (#83) on the out route. While Douglas gets separation from Amerson (#29) to the outside, Amerson is not that far from Douglas and can make a play on a poor throw. Mariota doesn’t try to throw a tough pass and instead goes through his progression. Andrew (#26) has no guarantee to get the conversion on this play as Woodson (#24) is shadowing him from the safety position, but Green-Beckham (#17) has beaten Thrope (#31) on the backside dig and is open in the back of the end zone. Mariota gets to Green-Beckham and makes the right decision to throw the pass. Mariota’s tendency to throw touch passes works to his advantage as he is able to throw it over the LBs and hit Green-Beckham in the chest for a successful conversion.

Pass #27

Situation: 1st and 10 OAK 18
Description: Q3-(6:13) M. Mariota Sacked at OAK 25 for -7 Yards (K. Mack)

I think Mariota (#8) is trying to pull off the same trick he did on his first touchdown pass of the game. Mariota is staring at Walker (#82) on the seam route, but his real intention is to throw back to Fasano (#80) like he did on the touchdown to Stevens. Woodson (#24) is a wily old veteran though and does not fall for the same trick again as he stays between Walker and Fasano. Mariota tries to get him to bite on a pump fake, but Woodson isn’t biting and takes away both seams route. Mariota will hopefully learn as he develops in the league that good veteran players are not going to fall for the same trick over and over again. He should have seen that Woodson wasn’t going to flow with his eyes and instead look at either of his curl routes. The Raiders are in a Cover 3 and Douglas (#83) is open on the curl route as Carrie (#38) is bailing in his deep coverage and Allen (#20) doesn’t get out to the flat because of the seam route of Walker, If Mariota sees this, he throws it out to Douglas on the curl before the pass rush gets there. Instead, he tries to make the seam route to Fasano work for too long and allows for Mack (#52) to beat the bad cut block of Bell (#76) and get the sack.

Pass #28

Siutation: 2nd and 17 OAK 25
Description: Q3-(5:30) M. Mariota Pass Short Middle to D. Walker to OAK 17 for 8 Yards (T. Mays)

I like how Mariota (#8) is going through his progression over and over again in this game. Mariota’s first read is the go route of Green-Beckham (#17) on the right. The Raiders are in a Tampa 2 and Woodson (#24) gets more outside in his deep half drop to take away the go route. Mariota makes the right decision to move on from Green-Beckham and go back to his left. He looks at Douglas (#83) first and sees that Mack (#52) has dropped underneath the curl route. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees that Ellis (#78) is following his eyes in coverage and has left Walker (#82) open underneath on his curl route. Without taking his time to look at Walker, he takes advantage of Ellis in coverage and throws it past him to Walker for the completion. Mariota’s field of vision can be very impressive at times and he shows it off on this play (13/23, 169 Yards, 2 TDs)

Pass #29

Situation: 3rd and 9 OAK 17
Description: Q3-(4:51) M. Mariota Pass Short Left to D. Walker to OAK 5 for 12 Yards (T. Mays). Penalty on TEN-D. Walker, Offensive Pass Interference, 10 Yards, Enforced at OAK 17 - No Play

Mariota (#8) does exactly what you want a quarterback to do on third down. Mariota’s first read is to Wright (#13) on the go route on the left side of the field. While Wright does get past Thorpe (#31) in man coverage, Allen (#20) is lurking in his deep half of the field and would be able to make a play on any pass to Wright. Mariota sees Allen in the area and goes to his next read. Walker (#82) is wide open on the curl route due to him knocking over Mays (#27) (and committing pass interference) so Mariota decides to go to Walker. This is the right read and he makes the easy pass for a first down if it wasn’t for the pass interference call.

Pass #30

Situation: 3rd and 19 OAK 27
Description: Q3-(4:21) M. Mariota Pass Short Right Intended to K. Wright Intercepted by D. Amerson at OAK 19. D. Amerson to OAK 21 for 2 Yards (K. Wright)

Mariota (#8) thinks he is seeing man coverage by Amerson (#29) on this play when in reality the Raiders are playing a Tampa 2 coverage. Mariota sees that Amerson is initially running with Douglas (#83) on the go route and has his back turned to him. Mariota assumes that Amerson is going to continue running with Douglas and sees that Carrie (#38) has not followed Wright (#13) on the out route. Mariota thinks he has a wide open out route that will make the field goal attempt by K Ryan Succop easier in the messy weather. Instead, Amerson stops following Douglas and passes him off to Woodson (#24) in deep coverage. Amerson does not have to move to make this interception and Mariota immediately regrets the throw once Amerson turns around. Mariota should have known that Amerson wasn’t going to go deep with Douglas as soon as he saw Carrie was not running with Wright and come back to his right to see Green-Beckham open underneath on the crossing route. (13/24, 169 Yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT)

Pass #31

Situation: 1st and 10 TEN 12
Description: Q3-(0:30) M. Mariota Pass Incomplete Deep Right to D. Green-Beckham (D. Amerson)

This is a designed shot play to Green-Beckham (#17) so there isn’t much of a read for Mariota (#8) to make. All Mariota is trying to do is to keep Woodson (#24) from roaming to his left before he throws it to Green-Beckham. Mariota’s throw to Green-Beckham is good as it was going to hit Green-Beckham right in the bread basket. Amerson (#29) is behind Green-Beckham by a half step but makes a great play to track and knock the ball down for an incompletion. You could argue that Mariota needed to throw this ball more to the outside to avoid Amerson but this one of those plays where great defense wins the day. (13/25, 169 Yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT)

On a side note, Amerson leads the Raider in passes defended. The Redskins (and the founder of this website) are likely going “where was this Amerson when he was with us?”

For the 4th Quarter passes, click on the next page