“We’re better than that.”
That’s how Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels began his press conference following his team’s humiliating 24-0 defeat at the hands of the Saints. But as I heard him say it, I couldn’t help but wonder…
Are they?
This is the same team that trailed the Chargers 24-9 late in the second half before scraping back to within striking distance. They blew a 20-point lead against the Cardinals. They gave up 24 first-half points to the Titans. They led the lowly Broncos by just two points with two minutes to go before a Josh Jacobs touchdown iced their first win of the season. They blew a 17-point lead to the Chiefs. They trailed twice in the second half against the Texans — one of the worst teams in the league. And then, Sunday, they got shut out by the second-worst scoring defense in the league coming into the week.
So while most of those games have been framed optimistically as “look how close this team is!” type performances, I think it’s time to start wondering if we were looking at things all wrong.
To be clear: this team was better than this before Josh McDaniels and Co. took over. It was a playoff team in spite of an off-the-field circus that featured both tragedy and nonsense. And yet, as we stand here today, the Raiders are just 2-5 — good for last place in the AFC West — and about as far out of the playoff picture as you can possibly be without officially being eliminated.
I’m not saying McDaniels should be sharpied in as a failure quite yet — this one season doesn’t have to define his tenure — but I think we’ve got enough of a sample size to start asking some real questions and stop giving everyone the benefit of the doubt.
Sunday’s performance was six inches below a gut punch, and barring a miracle, it might be the last time this team talks about the 2022-23 playoffs.
Offensive Headline: Davante… Who?
There are a lot of directions we could go with this one, but I think the best summation of all that went wrong Sunday can be found in Davante Adams’ stat line: One catch, one rush, two total yards.
In a game his team was trailing from the jump.
How is that possible? Even if he didn’t drop one pass, he should have caught, and even if he really did get his feet in on a pass ruled out of bounds — we’re still talking about a no-show from the sport’s best receiver.
Until the all-22 tape comes out, it’s tough to know how much of this is on him, how much of it’s on Carr, and how much of it’s on the offensive linemen (who were collectively brutal) — but regardless, this is an absolutely-positively-cannot-ever-no-never-happen-again-situation for McDaniels, Carr and Adams.
Defensive Headline: Did You See How Bad The Offense Was!?!
All Patrick Graham’s defense had going for it was that it wasn’t the worst unit in black on Sunday. After forcing a three-and-out on the first drive of the game, this was the result of the ensuing five drives:
Touchdown. Field goal. Touchdown. Missed field goal. Touchdown.
Aaaaaand that’s a wrap folks!
I don’t know what else to say about this group at this point. The Chandler Jones signing looks worse and worse every week (remember this when General Manager Dave Ziegler starts subtly complaining about the talent they inherited), receivers are getting to the first down marker untouched, and guys who haven’t scored in 10 weeks (Alvin Kamara) are logging three touchdowns in one game.
It seems harsh to call for Patrick Graham to adapt or be gone this early in the season, but that’s how bad this unit has looked all year.
Player Of The Game: Nobody
When you don’t cross the 50-yard line until the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter — and with all your best players out of the game — you don’t get a player of the game.
When your defense allows a team to score or attempt a field goal on five consecutive drives, you don’t get a player of the game either.
Sorry folks, thems the rules.
Odds And Ends
- I mentioned Chandler Jones earlier, but there were two plays in particular that stood out to me. On the first, he was tasked with setting the edge on the weak side, but the pulling guard absolutely annihilated him and allowed Alvin Kamara to break outside for a huge gain. On the second, he had Taysom Hill in his sights on a run, but Hill simply beat him to the edge rather easily before cutting up the sideline for a big gain. If you were worried about the $17 million, he’s making this year, wait until you see the $17 million he has guaranteed for next year.
- If there were three guys that I don’t have anything negative to say about from Sunday, they were Mack Hollins, Josh Jacobs and AJ Cole. None of these guys played poorly, they were just the product of everything going to crap all around them.
- I thought the biggest sequence of the game took place right at the beginning of the second quarter. The Raiders faced a third-and-one with the score just 7-0 on their own 42. Rather than pounding the ball with arguably the best running back in the league, they tried to get cute with a sweep play to Davante Adams that went for a loss of one. Now facing fourth-and-two, the Raiders faked a punt that resulted in not only a loss of three but also a 15-yard penalty. If you’re going to go for it, why not line up and run a play? On their next drive, facing third-and-two, once again, they opted not to use Jacobs – and this time, the play ended in a Derek Carr interception. The Saints went down and scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive to go up 17-0.
- The Saints came into this game with the 31st-ranked scoring defense in football, allowing 28.6 points per game.
