ALAMEDA — Jack Del Rio has no recourse, but he does have opinions.
In the wake of a 20-17 loss to the Cowboys, Del Rio at his weekly press conference Monday wasn’t mincing words about a pair of game-changing calls which helped drop the Raiders to 6-8 and on the precipice of playoff elimination.
The obvious one was a fourth-and-1 gamble by the Cowboys with 4:49 left which resulted in a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Dak Prescott and a first down at the 40.
The score was 17-17, and if Prescott had been stopped, the Raiders would get the ball on the Dallas side of the field.
The call came after a protracted period of time with referee Gene Steratore pulling a card from his pocket to measure the distance between the nose of the football and the first down pole and smiling as the process played out.
“I thought everything was in place to get an accurate call and I saw space and in my opinion, it should have gone the other way and a turnover on downs,” Del Rio said.
Del Rio said he hadn’t gotten an explanation from the league office “but whatever it is, I’m going to disagree with it. I know what I saw. I saw it myself on the sideline. But I also saw plenty of examples on Twitter.
“The guy ran out there with a camera and put the camera right down on it, so the whole world could see what it was. It’s not like we’re making something up. The guy with the camera was right there. So how you can look at that and get up with a smirk . . . I don’t know, that’s hard to take.”
Del Rio said during the game, he wasn’t aware of the card Steratore had pulled from his pocket, only that it appeared obvious to him there was space between the ball and the pole.
“I only saw it on social media . . . I saw space and I was like, `Alright, they just made a big error going for it right there and this is a turning point,’ ” Del Rio said. “There’s four (minutes) and change in the game and we’ve got the ball on the 40 going the other way. That was pretty ballsy and it really didn’t work, except they got the fortuitous reaction from the crew.”
I see a small space between the ball and the marker pic.twitter.com/C1BvASFUoW
— STEVE SERRANO (@R8RFAN67) December 18, 2017
The other call Del Rio had an issue with was an offensive pass interference call on tight end Jared Cook which nullified an 11-yard touchdown pass from Derek Carr with 14 seconds left and the Raiders trailing 10-0.
Cook and Lee made contact in the end zone, with Cook holding his ground making the catch.
Officials detected a pushoff. Del Rio saw it differently.
“I think it should have been a touchdown,” Del Rio said. “It was not ruled a defensive hold, which it was,” Del Rio said. “Instead it was ruled an OPI and they took it off the board. That was disappointing. I think the tape verifies that. It was disappointing.”
To make matters worse, Giorgio Tavecchio missed a 39-yard field goal attempt following an incomplete pass from Carr and the Raiders got nothing from a prime scoring opportunities.
— Del Rio acknowledged a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Cordarrelle Patterson (on Jon Feliciano) was called correctly. As for Carr’s fumble into the end zone which could have been the game-winning touchdown, Del Rio said it was also the right call even if the rule giving the ball to the defensive team at the 20-yard line may be overly severe.
“I’d have to agree that it shouldn’t count so much against you when you’re that close to the goal line,” Del Rio said. “If you were a yard back, it would have been fine. You would have kept the ball. I’d say you don’t get a touchdown, but you go back to where you fumbled it. That’s not the rule right now.”
Del Rio said Carr was urged to take off and run if the opportunity arose and to “be himself” but conceded his ball security could have been better on the final play.
“Would love to have seen him secure it with two hands and try and stretch it across with two hands,” Del Rio said. “It was in his left hand and the safety came over and there was contact and that jostled it loose.
— With Donald Penn scheduled for foot surgery Wednesday and missing the last two games, Del Rio said the options include playing as they did against Dallas, with Marshall Newhouse at left tackle and Vadal Alexander at right tackle, or giving rookie fourth-round pick David Sharpe of Florida a start at left tackle.
Sharpe has been active for just six games, and twice did not play. He’s played as an offensive lineman for just three snaps against the New York Giants.
— The illness which saw center Rodney Hudson placed on the injury report Sunday was a kidney stone, according to Del Rio.
“He was having significant pain leading up to the game, he was somehow able to tough it out,” Del Rio said.
Hudson was named the winner of the Raiders’ Commitment to Excellence award before the game and played all 70 snaps against Dallas, allowing no pressures and grading out as their top lineman, according to @Profootballfocus.com
