In a season in which the Las Vegas Raiders have failed to have a truly signature performance, their effort against the Chicago Bears was downright abysmal. Facing a Bears team starting a backup QB in his first career start, the Raiders were embarrassed and left Chicago with a 30-12 loss.
The Raiders were also without their starting quarterback as Jimmy Garoppolo sat out with a back injury, but the performance of the Raiders was terrible across the board. The offense turned the ball over three times and had a season-low 235 total yards. The defense, meanwhile, allowed a season-high 173 rushing yards in the loss.
And what was obvious to all those watching was also very apparent to those on the field. Bears tight end Cole Kmet appeared on The 33rd Team Podcast and said that the Raiders looked jetlagged and gassed on Sunday, nothing like the team they saw on film, via BR Gridiron:
“It seemed like they were a little jetlagged. I’m serious. The team we saw on tape was not the team that we played […] They were gassed. We would run the ball a couple times and if we got that first first down and then the next play if we got a like a six-yard chunk play on a run, they were done. They were gassed.”
It’s certainly concerning that the opposition is making this observation, but the results on the field back up what Kmet said. The Bears had their way with the Raiders all game long and dominated Las Vegas in every facet of the game. Now the Raiders sit at 3-4 with a lot of questions heading into a huge Monday night contest with the Detroit Lions.
Head coach Josh McDaniels has said that he has not lost faith in his team and their ability to turn things around, and one player brushed off the idea that the Raiders should look to fire their head coach. But the Raiders need to play at a certain level in order to quiet those rumors.
There are also rumors about the team potentially looking to move star receiver Davante Adams, but the Raiders reportedly have no interest in doing that, nor should they.
Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is expected to be back in uniform when the Raiders head to Detroit on Monday night, and he certainly gives the team the best chance at unlocking this offense and turning things around. One thing that is for sure is that they can not afford another effort like they showed in Chicago.
