Washington Gameday Thread
The Raiders are still in the hunt! Gotta get this one. GO RAIDERS!
posted by Raider Take at 1:09 PM
The Raiders are still in the hunt! Gotta get this one. GO RAIDERS!
posted by Raider Take at 1:09 PM
25 Comments:
The worst the opponent, the worst the Raiders perform. Coming off the Dallas game, expected so much more. Raiders seem to just lay down during home games in Vegas. No juice, no energy.
Very disappointing to say least.
The Raiders are a exaggeration starting with the ex- coach and QB.
Another winnable game down the tubes. Bears (home), Giants and WFT (home). Really?
The problem is fairly simple, to the point of being obvious. Greg Olsen is not a competent OC. Why does a coach come to Oakland to be OC when he knows the HC is calling all the plays? Is it to cover his lack of talent?
Olsen keeps calling the same conservative plays to start every game, and it's not until the Raiders become desperate to score that he actually opens up the offense. That transition is usually too late.
Most of the passes Carr threw early on were behind the LOS, and WFT smothered many of those plays for losses. When Carr needed to throw down field he did very well to avoid pressure (except when Parker completely whiffed his blocks) and held the ball when he was hit. He also threw a catchable pass to Zay Jones at the end of the game.
Olsen is the problem.
12 games in the books.
Raiders are 6-0 when Carr throws 300+ yards. Raiders are 0-6 when Carr throws less than 300 yards.
Could it be more obvious? Olsen needs to stop pretending the Raiders have a balanced offense. This entire season rests on the arm of Derek Carr.
When Olsen accepts that, two things will happen. Play action will be more effective and the Raiders will actually score in the first quarter... hell, the first half.
This season is quickly going down the tubes. I will say, Bisaccia looks powerless to do anything about it. Maybe nice guys do finish last.
Here it is from the players... even the Raiders players are saying what I'm saying.
https://www.raidersbeat.com/two-prominent-players-had-a-similar-observation-about-the-raiders-struggling-offense/
It's been obvious since early in the season (and actually became noticeable last year). Bisaccia is the HC. He needs to put a stop to this BS. It's costing the Raiders a chance to make the playoffs. It might be too late.
Derek Carr missed Desean Jackson wide open down the middle seam 3 times last night. By missed, I mean, didn't even look his way. He also missed Zay Jones in similar fashion, and went to a dump off instead. Desean was not happy about it either.
Washington's defense is not that great to hold a high powered offense to 15 points, yet, the Raiders played down to their competition. It is clear that Greg Olsen is the problem to our offensive woes. He is a good QB coach, but he is not a good play caller.
Olsen was the problem the first time, and de ja vu, is the problem all over again. Literally the worst offensive put out by the Raiders. I don't understand how Mayock and Bisaccia can put up with this garbage. You have the League's leading passer, and you completely shut him down?
With that said, when the came back and got back into the game, the defense couldn't get it together. Deeablo was out of position several times that kept the last drive by Washington alive, and the Raiders could not get off the field on 3rd down the entire game.
I will say, however, the non-call at the end of the game was bull. Zay Jones was held, and the flag should have been thrown. It was obvious pass interference, and the ref did not make the call. That would have set us up for the game winner. With that said, it should have never come down to that play.
At this point, I'd be happy if the Raiders would let Derek call the plays at the line like Tom Brady does. I think we'd be in a better spot. Back down to 6-6, and we travel to Kansas City next, then to Cleveland, at home against the Doncos, at Indy, and closing out against the Chargers. Not sure the Raiders end up with 10-11 wins (which means they would have to win out). Can they go 9-8, or will they go 8-9? We will see.
If Olsen is allowed to script plays to start each of the Raiders final games, Bisaccio will have a very short HC career, and all the coaches will be gone.
Meanwhile, Mark Davis will be scrambling for a new head coach (and coaching staff) while also trying to keep as many of their talented free agents as possible. I think I read the Raiders will have 26 free agents in 2022.
The Raiders might be inches away from another complete overhaul.
I wouldn't hold your breath for 10 wins. Even 8 might be a reach given the schedule of teams the Raiders play who are vying for the playoffs.
from media:
According to Pro Football Focus analytics, the Raiders’ offensive line has performed in the bottom third of the league as a pass-blocking group and is the second-worst run blocking unit in the NFL.
Hard to believe there's a team that's actually worse at run blocking than the Raiders.
This is why runs and short passes get stuffed to start every game. Somebody in the organization has to be smarter than Greg Olsen and explain this to him.
Nate75, i enjoy your takes, and think you're right on the money most of the time.
But...
If Carr is missing wide open Wr's down field, why is that Greg Olsen's fault ?
It seems to me that good plays were designed, receivers got open, and Carr settled for dump offs instead. I would put that on the Qb, Carr, not the OC.
Ghost,
I am putting blame on both, really. Olsen's conservative play-calling kills the team, the most aggressive wins, and Olsen has to learn to be more aggressive. He is going to have to game plan to help take pressure of his QB, which DC did face a lot of pressure from WFT, as he has all year. Not trying to solely pin this all on Olsen, but the Raiders have once again, moved away from screen passes to the RB to alleviate pressure, play-action pass (because we have no running game), and have gone more with a dink-n-dunk game plan passing to compensate for lack of running game. Carr has not won a game when his avg passing game is below 5 yards per pass. He was 4.3 (I think) on Sunday.
At the same time, Carr has to stick with a play a little more before checking down. He checks down too quickly if he doesn't see separation. I think sometimes he is afraid to throw into tight coverage, and making a mistake, which is why his Red Zone rating stinks. In the NFL, a QB is not afforded much of a window of separation, it is a game of inches. Mistakes are part of the game, you're not going to execute perfectly. Carr has to return to a mindset of "I'm going to take what I want" instead of "I'm going to take what they give me." Really, that mindset starts with the coaches. The offensive problem on Sunday was both Carr moving too quickly to check down (mostly due to pressure) missing DJax and Zay, and Olsen's conservative play calling.
I think that's conflating two different issues, each bad in its own way.
A. Olsen is to blame for scripting terrible plays to start games. This issue actually goes back to mid-2020. But it's so bad now under Olsen that even Raiders players are calling it out. I posted a link above.
B. In the 2nd half, after the offense was opened up with plays down field, Carr never spotted Jackson on a crossing route that Jackson could have walked into the end zone and changed the game.
WRT WFT, Del Rio got the best of Carr (whom media say he's criticized in the past for being too timid).
This loss hurts worse than any other because it creates separation in the playoff hunt that I don't see the Raiders ever making up. At a minimum, I think they would need to win out in the division... and that's not happening.
12 games in the books and the season is pretty much over.
It's all too familiar. Lots of excuses! Heads should roll, yet competent replacements seem inevitably and perpetually out of reach to the Raiders.
Another media source:
Jacobs summed it up perfectly...
Coasting is the perfect word, Josh. At the beginning of most games, if you have the time to rewatch them, the offense acts as if they have one hundred more drives to attempt to execute if the first one doesn’t go right. The playcalling is pedestrian, lazy, docile, whatever word you want to use, it’s the same thing. It’s coasting.
Conservative play calling has cost the Raiders the 2021 season.
Raiders who are free agents after this season:
AJ Cole, Alec Ingold, Casey Hayward, Daniel Carlson, DeSean Jackson, Gerald McCoy, Johnathan Hankins, KJ Wright, Marcus Mariota, Marquel Lee, Nicholas Morrow, Quintin Jefferson, Richie Incognito, Solomon Thomas, and Zay Jones.
I say we have to definitely keep:
Cole, Carlson, Hayward, Jefferson, and Thomas
You can make an argument for keeping:
Ingold, DJax, McCoy, Hankins, and Mariota. These guys have been a huge key to our season, but I don't think DJax is going to stay. I'm not sure Mariota will give us a home town discount again if he is looking to start somewhere. Hankins has had his first good season with us, where he has actually not only stuffed the run, but has had decent QB pressure. I'd like to see Gerald McCoy come back healthy. He was doing great until he got hurt.
The rest can go.
Also have to look at who else is going to be a free agent in the League. Davante Adams will be a HUGE pick up, and that is someone DC has been lobbying for. Allen Robinson and Jamison Crowder will also be Free Agents. Germain Ifedi (RT, Chi), Brandon Scherff (G, WFT), Ryan Jensen (C, TB) are all Offensive Line FA to look at. At the end of 2023, we will have a ton of players on the line for free agency, including Carr, Crosby, and Jacobs.
My two cents it's both. The offense coaching sucked, no way if Gruden is calling plays the Raiders only score 15.
Carr also sucked he overthrew a number of balls including touchdown to zay and 2 pointer to edwards. He also checked down when guys were open down the field. Gruden's positive influence on Carr should not be dismissed, Carr needs him.
Raiders were 4-2 with Gruden 2-4 without.
Sandy
I think the best thing to do if Bisaccia stays as Head Coach is to bring back Musgrave. Musgrave is the only OC that not only worked well with Carr, but they had a winning record with him as OC. Letting him go was the demise of Jack Del Rio and Reggie McKenzie; but they let him go because they knew Gruden was going to come back.
Gruden had positive influences on Carr, but not enough to be an effective winner. Gruden's offense only scored 9 against the Bears, and 14 against the Chargers. Gruden's offense was struggling like they are now too, they couldn't get anything going in the first half, but seemed to get the ball rolling in the second. His opening scripted plays were ineffective. So yes, Gruden did wonders for Carr; but I felt Musgrave has been the best OC Carr has had.
The bottom line, they need someone who is going to game plan to the players strengths, and not a system. Musgrave game planned to the strengths of the 2016 team, was aggressive, and won. That is what the Raiders have been missing since.
but they let [Musgrave] go because they knew Gruden was going to come back.
That doesn't fit the timeline. Del Rio and Musgrave were coming of a banner season. There was no discussion of Gruden at that time, at least that I remember. Musgrave went to Denver and some understudy of his took over for the Raiders. That huge failure in 2017, along with Del Rio's sudden inability to coach defense (which he miraculously regained last Sunday!) was the reason Gruden was pursued.
Musgrave was let go because Del Rio wanted him gone and was upset at how much Musgrave was getting paid.
Nate you can't blame that on Gruden you really come up with some bozzare theories. Also you are wrong on Gruden's offense it was highly effective, just check the stats on Gruden as Raiders coach last year and this in terms of offensive rankings don't cherry pick two games. One of which was after the emails.
Musgrave is yesterday's news if he was such a good coach he would be in the NFL not an offensive coordinator at a middling college program like Cal.
Sandy
Now that the writing is pretty much on the wall, my concern is that Davis and his advisors will draw from the same shallow pool of coaching talent that has the Raiders leading the NFL in head coach changes over the past 18 years.
How can any team be wrong every time? You'd think the law of averages would catch up. We're not talking about years, it's decades.
NY, Davis had an agreement with Gruden to be the coach before the 2017 season, which means he was talking with him in 2016. Del Rio and Gruden have the same agent, and they were finalizing a deal during the 2017 season. Del Rio knew, and he even said as much in announcing that he had been fired that at the end of the season; so did Mark Davis. Can't tell me they didn't give Musgrave an option to stay or leave. Del Rio tanked the 2017 season, and all but admitted it.
WRT how long can any team be wrong every time? I agree, this isn't rocket science. The Lions are the epitomy to this for me. I cannot believe anyone would want to play or coach there. I feel teams like that just do not want to win, they want to be competitive, and they want to keep fans interested. I hope Davis wants to win, and it's not hyperbole when he says he wants to win. But, if he truly does not want anything with the football operations, then he should trust Mayock to build a winner. If Mayock cannot, then he should find someone else he can trust. I will put my name in and help build a winner if I need to. The most aggressive team wins, and you have to be aggressive in all 3 aspects of the game (Offense, defense, and Special Teams). The aggressive team takes what they want. The aggressive team is feared and respected. This is the successful formula of Al Davis, and even Al started to lose that in the end. We do have players like that on the team. Maxx Crosby, Yannick, Perryman, Heyward, Abram, Hobbs, and Moehring on defense. We have that in Kolton Miller, Waller, Renfrow, and Drake on offense. We have seen glimpses of that in Derek Carr, and we have seen glimpses of him being passive like this last Sunday. It doesn't necessarily take "household names" to be aggressive, but it is an attitude that starts with coaching. I think we have that attitude in Gus Bradley, but we don't have that attitude with Greg Olsen, and I'm not sure about Bisaccia right now either. If he wants to remove the interim, then he is going to have to stop being nice and put his foot in Olsen and Cable and get them to be aggressive with what they have.
Sandy,
Never blamed Gruden for Del Rio's woes. That is on Del Rio for tanking, not Gruden, and not Musgrave. Gruden's offense had been effective earlier in the season, until the Chargers game. But even in his effectiveness, he was having issues with his scripted opening plays, and with the running game, and with the O-Line blocking (which is still an issue), and with 2nd and 3rd Quarter woes. He had a lot of 3 and out drives this season. Not sure what happened with Gruden, if he saw the writing on the wall that the League was wanting to drive him out, and that pressure got to him, or what; but he was having his share of issues this season as the season was under way. The difference, he won his first 3 games to start the season; games that could have easily gone the other way. Then it caught up with him against the Chargers and Bears.
I've been saying this about the Raiders offense since the beginning of the season. It's remarkable that it's just now being discussed among media.
https://www.espn.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/319068/las-vegas-raiders-slow-starting-jekyll-and-hyde-offense-has-season-on-the-brink
lackadaisical and uninspired playcalling to start games has cost the Raiders a playoff chance in 2021. Everyone involved should be fired without further delay, in order to try and salvage what's left of Bisaccio's soon-to-be incredibly short head coaching career.
Anonymous said...
WFT Ultra Squad
J. Thiesman #7
L. Brown #43
J. Riggins #44
J. Smith
A. Monk #81
S. Moss #83
C. Samuels
R. Grimm #68
J. Bostic #53
M. Schlereth #69
J. Lachey #79
M. Mosely #3
KR J. Washington #20 (no. #2 RB)
D. Manley #72
D. Butz # 65
D. Wilkinson #99 (3-4 NG)
D. Jones #75
M. Coleman #51
C. Hanburger #55
W. Marshall #58
D. Greene #28
C. Bailey #24
S. Taylor #
P. Ficher #37
T. Way
PR B. Mitchell #30 (no. #3 RB)
H. Long #75
R. Kinlaw #62 (3-4 NG)
C. McGlockton #91
T. Armstrong #93
J. Squirek #58
M. Millen #55
J. Robinson #57
M. Haynes #22
S. Thomas #26
R. Lott #42
M. Hardin #31
S. Lechler #9
KR R. Ismail #86 (no. #3 WR)
Raiders' All-Decaders
D. Lamonica #3
E. Dickerson #29
M. Van Eagan #30
J. Witten #82
J. Lofton #80
F. Biletnikoff #25
A. Shell #78
S. Wisnewski #76
R. Hudson #61
M. Marvin #65
B. Brown #76
C-Bass
PR R. Woodson #26 (no. #5 DB)
C. Didier #85 (no. #2 TE)
G. Clark (no. #3 WR)
R. Kerrigan # (edge)
K. Goviea #54 (3-4 ILB)
K. Houston #27 (no. #5 DB)
D. Waller #83 (no. #2 TE)
K. Wimbley #96 (edge)
T. Benson #54 (3-4 ILB)
R. Ismail #86 (no. #3 WR, KR)
G. Pruitt (no. #2 RB)
9:51 AM
Did you guys hear what Jerry Rice said recently? He said that Mark Davis should think outside the box if he is going to go a different direction with a Head Coach, and hire Tim Brown. I would like to see that happen, if Tim is wanting to coach. Art Shell had no coaching prior to being the Raiders Head Coach, and I can see a lot of similarities here. Tim Brown has been connected to football, and has a lot of good knowledge with him. The question is, who would he surround himself with? A great Head Coach surrounds himself with great coaches. Would he have that opportunity, or would he be tied with what he has there? I feel this would be a better solution than the rumors of Harbaugh leaving Michigan to be the Raiders HC.
Either way, I found it interesting.
Brown would be a big mistake, IMO. Harbaugh is an experienced head coach and more of an x's and o's guy. Brown as HC could end up very messy for a guy who is currently nothing less than a football legend for the Raiders. Let's leave him elevated above HC.
This is very interesting and well presented. It's about why opposing fans are populating Allegiant Stadium. Estimated best the Raiders can do is 60-40 home vs opposing fans.
https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles/raider_nation_upset_with_number_of_opposing_fans/s1_16640_36675827
Based on all factors presented, it would seem Mark Davis will succeed with or without the Raiders fielding a winner. A sad reality for any Raiders fan. While everyone "wants" to win, it's secondary in business to making money.
Buzz around the media is that Mark Davis may clean house after the season. Bisaccio is not going to be the Raiders next HC, not if Davis wants to change the path of losing. IMO, Bisaccio looks uninvolved (sometimes lost) on the sidelines during games, reminiscent of Art Shell. That's not a good look for a HC.
Sorry to disappoint some here but Gruden probably wasn't the answer either. Four years is just too long to spin the wheels. Proof exists throughout the league, with elite HCs taking two years or less for significant change.
Hell, look no further than what Gus Bradley did for the Raiders defense in one off-season. That's what a decent coach can do. Four years is incredibly inefficient, especially, when you consider that's as long or longer than a typical contract. Gruden's 10-year deal was a stupid as it sounds and gave Gruden security despite making critically bad choices wrt coaches, draft picks, trades and free agents. It got so bad that Mayock was probably going to be the scapegoat this year. As it turns out, he's probably gone anyway.
Gruden's play calling, while better than Olsen's, mostly got us to where we are now, starring at another lost season. The uninspired conservative play calling to start games started with Gruden and has stupidly survived with Olsen - who is even more conservative.
File this under the category of "too little, too late," but watch for the Raiders to open up the offense early against the Chiefs. Not because it's the high-scoring Chiefs, but because it's become so incredibly obvious to the entire football watching world that scripted plays to start games has been the Raiders biggest failure. By extension, the Chiefs know what to expect.
I think every Raiders fan has cause to be upset with the status quo. The Raiders have underperformed for long enough. They've gone from being a storied NFL franchise to losing season after season, decade after decade. Their fall from grace is nothing less than epic.
It's a level of failure that's defied all odds.
I'll be happy to eat those words if the Raiders win out. Don't hold your beath.
When I saw Herbert roll out (under pressure) and chuck a dart 65 yards in the air for a TD with a defender inches behind, I saw the future. Hard to be a consistent playoff winner in this league without an elite QB, and unfortunately we have two of those in this division, and they are not named Carr.
Post a Comment
<< Home