Josh McDaniels and the Las Vegas Raiders weren't able to pull out an upset victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, but it wasn't because quarterback Jarrett Stidham didn't play good enough to win.
Stidham, a New England Patriots draftee, made his first career start in Week 17 against arguably the league's best defense. He turned in a respectable performance as he completed 23 of his 34 passes for 365 yards and three touchdowns. Stidham, however, did account for a pair of interceptions including a game-altering pick in overtime with San Francisco kicking a game-winning field goal two plays later.
"I thought Jarrett put in a great week of work," McDaniels told reporters after the 37-34 defeat, per the team. "Obviously, he knows what to do. He's been in our system a long time and has that grasp of it, understands what to do. I thought he exectued a lot of things in the right way today, gave our guys a chance to make some plays down the field.
"I thought he did a good job of, really he skipped third down in the first half for the most part," McDaniels continued. "We didn't hardly have any third downs. He had a solid performance I think for his first start."
The Raiders compiled 500 yards of offense while 15 of their 29 first downs came through the air. Las Vegas lost the turnover battle 2-1, proving a key factor.
"I'm sure he'd be the first one to tell you the turnovers you want back," McDaniels said. "There was definitely some other things involved in those turnovers. But I thought leading our team, his energy, his communication, I though we had a good rhythm. And obviously you can tell the guys really played well for him and played hard for him, as they should. So it didn't surprise me that he was ready to go and play the way he played. That's a great great group over there. And Jarrett and the guys made some plays today."
Stidham threw a pair of touchdowns to wideout Davante Adams and another to tight end Darren Waller. All three plays featured some impressive play from Stidham. He also orchestrated a two-minute drill with the Raiders trailing the 49ers 34-27 with 2:17 left. With the Raiders benefitting from a penalty and a 45-yard completion to Adams, Las Vegas ended up covering 75 yards in three plays and just 1:06.
Stidham took over behind center for the Raiders after the organization announced it was benching veteran starter Derek Carr. The expectation now is that Carr, who's away from the team, could be traded this offseason all while Las Vegas might be able to gain some clarity on Stidham in the short term.
