Jack Bech — Week 1: Touchdown on the Opening Drive
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Bech caught three of four targets for twenty-three yards and the Raiders' first touchdown of the season, fifteen yards short middle on third and four with one thirty-eight left in the first quarter. His only second-half target was intercepted deep left, and his four targets came out at minus three point zero expected points, in a 27–13 win over the Dolphins.
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The first Raiders touchdown of the season was Jack Bech's. Third and four at the Miami 15, one 38 left in the first quarter, no score, the end of a drive that had started at the Las Vegas seven: Kirk Cousins short middle, 15 yards, seven to nothing. The catch was worth +2.6 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and +6.5 points of win probability, the chance of winning after the play against before it, the largest gain in win probability on any Raiders play all afternoon. On the play before, he had caught three yards short middle on second and seven at the 18 to set up the third down.
The line: four targets, three catches, 23 yards, one touchdown, which was also his only first down, and −3.0 expected points on the targets. Three of the four came before halftime and all three were caught: the three-yarder, the touchdown, and five yards short left on second and 18 at the Las Vegas 25 with 13 22 left in the half, up seven to nothing, which set up the third and 13 on which Tre Tucker drew the taunting penalty. The fourth target is why the total is negative. Second and seven at the Las Vegas 38, 14 34 left in the third, up 17 to six, the second play of the second half: Cousins deep left for Bech out of the no-huddle, intercepted by Michael Taaffe at the Miami 46 and returned two yards, with Bech making the tackle. −4.7 expected points, −6.9 points of win probability, the largest swing against Las Vegas on any Raiders pass or run in the game. Miami scored its only touchdown on the drive that followed. Bech was not thrown to again.
The ball went seven times to Michael Mayer, six to Ashton Jeanty, five to Jalen Nailor, four each to Tucker and Bech, two to Malik Benson, one to Cody White, and one throw carries no receiver, with Brock Bowers inactive, per Ezekiel Trezevant at Raiders On SI, ruled out with a knee injury on the team's injury report at Raiders.com. Bech's four targets were four of 30 pass plays, a little over 13 percent. Las Vegas threw 17 times before halftime and 13 after, and Bech's share of the second-half throws was one.
Back in June the preview called Bech a watchlist — receiver 100 at pick two 47, a second-year player priced on a vacated role and a year-two step from a rookie share of 7.6 percent, with the quarterback question clouding the whole thing. Sunday the quarterback was Cousins for every throw, the share was 13 percent, and the first touchdown of his career came on the Raiders' first drive. One game is one game, and the second half had one target in it, which is the part the preview was worried about. Las Vegas is at the Chargers on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Jack Bech's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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