With all that has gone awry in 2020, most people can’t wait for 2021 to arrive. They will have to wait two more weeks. For the Raiders, 2021 arrived Thursday night. The Raiders needed to win their final three regular-season games just to have a chance at making the playoffs for the first time since
Raiders’ playoffs hopes all but extinguished with overtime loss to Chargers
Next year country, a yearly destination that the Raiders always enjoy visiting.
It is actually beyond comical how incompetent this franchise is. But here we are, stuck with $100 million to spend on a guy who couldn’t call a decent play in the red zone if he tried. Stuck with the worst defensive personnel perhaps in all of my years of watching football since the 70’s. This is what we got three years into it. Disgusting, embarrassing and pathetic is the only way to describe it.
As for this game, these are what irked me the most:
1) Gruden’s inability to call a smart play in the red zone. The third down play in over time at the five yard line and you call a 2 yard pass to a full back? Wut?? Use Mariota’s athleticism or toss a jump ball to Waller at teh back of the endzone…anything.
2) The offensive line hasn’t been blocking well in the running game for more than a month. I realize teams are scheming to stop the run but stop with the excuses, it has been anemic.
3) Defence in general is attrocious…ya who knew, story at 11. I’m gonna give Mullen a pass since he has been ok for the most part this season. In this one he got off to a bad start and things snowballed. I won’t be concerned about him unless he gets victimized again in the last two games. Honestly, where did the Raiders find these players on defence? Did they pick them up on a high school field somewhere?
4) Derek Carr couldn’t stay healthy for a full season if they let him play inside an armoured tank.
5) I thought the officiating was trash this game. It was death by 1,000 cuts. There wasn’t one outlandish call it was a series of calls, or non calls, that all went the Chargers way. How the Raiders get tagged for a bs leading by the head call but yet Renfrow gets nailed exactly the same way and no call. That was only 1 of about 6 or 7 other things i noticed.
So anyway, here we are…3 years in…another season toast. The team is nowhere close to being a playoff contender and the $100 million man has no answers. As mentioned in the article, the Chargers are on the upswing and could easily surpass the Raiders in the standings next year. The Broncos with a bit of tweaking and getting healthier could also be a factor next year. The Raiders could actually find themselves in the basement again next year. Back where they are comfy.
On the good side, the Raiders proved they can move the ball between the 20’s. Awesome, maybe they could put that up in the locker room so the $100 million man can feel good about his accomplishments this year. Because outside of that, he has done NOTHING. I’ll say this right now, I don’t foresee this team ever making the post season with Gruden.
Spot on, could not agree more.
I guess I should say something positive. I thought Mariota did as well as you could ask him under the circumstances. Kudos to him for a good effort. I don’t know if he truly makes the Raiders any better offensively, but he does add some pizazz. Next year if Mariota is back I would like to see a true competition between him and Carr. May the best man win.
Steve, you can blame the defense as much as you want but, at this point in the season, it’s a given they can’t stop the critical drives. It was Gruden who lost this game for us, again!
Just like in the Colts game, his chicken-sh**t play-calling at the goal line stalled TWO more drives at the 5 yard-line.
That makes it 16 drives stalled within 12 yards of the end-zone in 14 games this season! By far most in the league! Last year, it was only 8 for the full season.
Something is just not right with this organization. In the last seven years, it has gone through two complete tear downs and rebuilds and is nowhere close to being a playoff contender. Meanwhile, other teams have gone from mediocre to perennial playoff contenders in half the time (Niners went to a SB a year after having the same record as the Raiders, Browns are looking strong). I am really starting to think that a part of it must be leadership. You don’t see players trying to motivate other players on the sidelines when things go wrong. When things are good, this team is amazing, but when things go wrong it seems to just continue to spin out.
Could it be that the last two regimes drafted players who were not necessarily good leaders? Or, not the right kind of leaders?
These are obviously strictly my opinions:
1) Historically… meaning the last decade or more…good players and coaches didn’t want to live in Oakland. And Al Davis was a massive deterrent in his later years.
2) Gruden is a cartoon character not a head coach. It’s tough to get good coordinators who would work under him. I think he is respected for his offensive knowledge, but I just don’t think he is respected across the league. The Chucky thing likely makes other coaches roll their eyes.
3) Carr is too soft to be a leader. He is a good guy and works hard but he doesn’t demand the performance and respect from his teammates like a Rich Gannon did. He also folds when the going gets tough. He doesn’t elevate the team
4) Defensively, there are ZERO leaders. Just a bunch of players. I think the plan for the team was to take guys from winning college programs like Clemson and Alabama to grow into leaders. Unfortunately those players are sucking on the field so it’s hard to have leaders when they are non factors as players.
Just my opinion.
I just read an article in the Las Vegas Review Journal that outlined that late season collapses are a trend for Gruden coached teams. That ain’t going to get you to the playoffs.