January 9, 2018
Raider Nation, This is a big f’ing deal!
-Mark Davis
Over eight months later, these famous words are now an afterthought to a tumultuous opening month for John Gruden and the Oakland Raiders.
Khalil Mack is gone and most realistic people know the trade was uneven. Reggie Nelson somehow stays employed, while first rounder Karl Joseph is nearly invisible. The backup quarterback situation could rear its ugly head sometime down the road. The nightmare of a train wreck campaign is looking more inevitable by the moment. So where do Gruden’s Raiders go from here?
Through the initial quarter of the 2018 season, Jon Gruden’s squad cannot put a full game performance together. On offense, Derek Carr has been Jekyll and Hyde and his weapons can’t properly show off their capabilities because of it. Raider Nation is questioning whether or not Carr is worth the hefty contract.
Defensively, it’s a tale of two halves. For 30 minutes the Silver & Black hold their own, just to get worn down due to the lack of miscues and inconsistency. Without a pass rush, the secondary will inevitably struggle. When defensive backs lead the team in tackling, negative outcomes will arise far too often. Gruden and Paul Guenther must devise a better scheme that remains effective for an entire contest.
Ten years is an eternity to build an organization, especially after trading away your best player for nothing. That’s why Gruden must preach patience steadily throughout 2018. Raiders fans will not wait as long because of the obvious past history amid other head-straining decisions. It is not a lost year yet, but Raider Nation has the right to stare into a bleak road ahead after this less then enthusiastic start.
For now, standing aside this team seems preposterous, but I confidently believe that Gruden will have the Raiders humming in 2019. That alone needs to be taken into heavy consideration, because truth be told, Jon Gruden needs every ounce of help he can get at this point to skyrocket the Raiders to the top of the NFL.
Ramble On Patiently, Raider Nation!
“Trading your best player for nothing”. This is where you lost me and I stopped reading.
2 first round picks are more of an unknown than “nothing”. Overly dramatic are we? Definitely.
Tired of hearing about the Mack trade. The way they’ve been playing, he wouldn’t have helped much anyway. Even with his strip sacks and fumble recoveries. Karl Joseph is hurt a lot and he’s hurt again. They need to keep their foot on the gas for 4 quarters, not two.
I’ve been rambling on for at least a couple of decades. Sometimes travelling out of state to show my support including this debacle in Miami. When is the administration, team, or coaches going to show support for its fans by putting together a winning team? This is a one sided affair and I’m sick of the excuses.
I am shocked that “journalists” think they know what they’re talking about. You went to school to learn how to write. If I want to cite something in MLA format I’ll reach out. . .journalists have absolutely zero clue what it takes to build a championship roster. You dont know football, quit making yourself look silly.
Raiders fans are more loyal than Browns fans.
Unfortunately I can’t support this silver n black train wreck anymore. They abandoned the loyal fans of Oakland(TWICE), they’ve been living off past super bowl wins from Reagan’s first term & now the guy they traded to Tampa (and won his ring) is now back to complete the demise & trades a first round HoFer while trying to blow smoke up the faithfuls collective asss by telling them he’s building a championship team. Raiders fans, I love you, but mark my words…. the Raiders will NEVER win a super bowl with Jon gruden. Best of luck to you all.
Carr is mo surprise he has played like this the whole time that he has been in the nfl he is just like his brother and copper can’t catch the raidets have disappointed me the most this year with getting rid of it’s most vaule able players like mack crabtree jankiskie king how about getting rid of carr and copper and chuckie also the davis and we migjt be doing something thanks les
I haven’t been this frustrated watching the Raiders games since Russell days. The offense, even when they are rolling, scares me. Carr just throws short passes here and there which is fine so long as they are effective, but certain decisions he makes still does not give me the confidence or gives me the reason to believe we are in control. Most of the key turning points have been due to misreads and him trying to do a bit more. If offense is frustrating, defense is outright scary to watch because at any moment, any normal play would turn into a big gain and we are forced to watch the frustrating offense back on the field.
Is it coaching? Maybe. Reminds me of basketball teams that were great first three quarters and disappears in the fourth quarter. There were other coaches who took over and the trend changed, they would play competitively for the first 3 quarters and then go balls out on the fourth. Perhaps it’s conditioning, whatever it may be. I hope we come out of it.
If we can get through JaMarcus Russell and Lane “Lance” kiffin we can get through just about anything. I love how these articles are angled to try to piss us off and start cannibalizing ourselves and our coaches. I’m not going to do it. I see too many raider fans going at it with each other and it’s strictly because the media likes it and wants it. I don’t care I if I’m the last son of a bit on the silver and black pirate ship I’m going to stick around till the son of a bitch’s completely underwater. The positive I see is that we are moving the ball very well plus we are leading in terms of time of possession and when you do those things it’s only a matter of time before those things turn into points. Just remember where the Jacksonville Jaguars were 2 years ago. After all it’s not Jon gruden’s fault that Reggie whiffed on the past few drafts especially 2017. That draft class was absolutely atrocious. As my World War II veteran grandfather always said. Tough times don’t last forever but tough people do!!
Mack probably would have won the last two outcomes. Don’t let your hate overshadow his greatness and your ineptness to realize the situation. Come back to reality
The Raiders are trying to get a top five pick next year which is why they are throwing games. Expect that we’ll see the Raiders testing more of their players like they’ve done the last few weeks. We don’t know what receiver they’re going to use or tight end, or scheme. It’s all been different up to this point. I expect they will keep dominating the first 2 or 3 quarters and then the coaches will design the playcalling in the fourth quarter to put players out of position and allow the other teams to keep winning. The Raiders know they could have a dominant season but what good would that do them considering they’re leaving Oakland after this season and the last thing they want moving into Vegas is bad draft positioning, so I expect the Raiders to make sure they have high draft picks when they start their true build after this season.
I’ve been a fan of the Raiders for almost 50 years. At first I was excited about Jon Gruden coming back to lead the team. Now I can’t wait until they fire him. He tore the heart and soul out of this team when he ignored Mack and traded him away for future picks. 1st round picks aren’t guarantees to make a difference for the better. No one the Raiders get either that pick will replace the player that Mack is. Then Gruden had the nerve to say recently that finding a good pass rusher is hard. No s*** you f****** moron. You traded arguably the best defensive player in the league for a couple of potential players. Plus you gave up a 2nd round pick along with Mack. WTF. Why not send Cooper packing too. He’s due for a new contract . But they’ll probably pay Cooper 18 million a year to keep dropping the ball. Keep playing Reggie Nelson. He’s a joke. Doug Martin is another over the hill player. Hell, almost all the players Gruden brought in are over the hill in football years. And Jon just can’t seem to figure out why the team can’t play a full 4 quarters. SMH. Bye bye Raiders. See you in a couple of decades. By then the No Fun League will be two hand touch.
Time to watch the puck drop!
The Mack trade is just a moral killer. How often does a team get a rookie(born,bred,blood) that goes to the best at his position in the NFL. And Gruden doesn’t even talk to him? Who the hell is Gruden, he’s 0-3. Chucky don’t like one of the best punters in the NFL then don’t like or don’t talk to the best pass rusher. Why are we 0-3? DUH! Morale is in the toilet. OMG, if only we would have kept OC Bill Musgrave after 12-4 season. Del Rio would still be coach and Raiders would be top team. You know it’s true.
The Mack trade is just a morale killer. How often does a team get a rookie(born,bred,blood) that goes to the best at his position in the NFL. And Gruden doesn’t even talk to him? Who the hell is Gruden, he’s 0-3. Chucky don’t like one of the best punters in the NFL then don’t like or don’t talk to the best pass rusher. Why are we 0-3? DUH! Morale is in the toilet. OMG, if only we would have kept OC Bill Musgrave after 12-4 season. Del Rio would still be coach and Raiders would be top team. You know it’s true.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Everyone knew the defense needed a SERIOUS rebuild and obviously MacKenzie was not the answer for personnel. If you take the time to go back and look at Mack’s sacks, and the times he affected the game, were hardly ever to snuff out a third down, or cause alot of turnovers, etc. And as far as all this crap about double teams is cocerned, no one wants to hear about about that either….LT was double teamed Reggie White was double teamed and they still affected the game. Now, armed with all of these picks, and hindsight-Gruden will be able to fix the entire defense. Mack only looks good now because the bears actually had a defense before they shipped him out. Don’t forget we sucked until we got Gruden the first time. And, except for one year (2016) we sucked. Now with all that he has learned and hindsight being 20-20 we need to give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, don’t you remember all of those games where Mack did a dissapearing act? When all of those teams were running on us for 100-200 yards a game? He was being double-teamed, obviously. I didn’t think he was a franchise player like Miller when we drafted him. Too slow for an outside backer and too small for a defensive end. (Couldn’t handle double teams.) Don’t worry-we will be good under him again.Mack really wasn’t worth the 20 million we offered him after the combine, and he never showed up for anything team related.
Really? After three games?