Raiders coach Jon Gruden wasn’t in the mood to point fingers on Monday, a day after Las Vegas lost a nail-biter to the Chiefs, 35-31. Well, not at individual players, anyway.
His team pulled ahead of the world champion Chiefs with just 1:43 remaining in the game, thanks to a touchdown pass from quarterback Derek Carr to tight end Jason Witten. The Raiders defense failed to make a play when it mattered most, however, and QB Patrick Mahomes found tight end Travis Kelce wide open in the end zone with 28 seconds on the clock, sealing Las Vegas’ fate.
Second-year safety Johnathan Abram made a glaring mistake on Kelce’s TD grab, failing to drop back into coverage when he saw Mahomes creep toward the line of scrimmage. Gruden took a team-first approach to the failure on defense, however, rather than blame Abram for the loss.
“I’m not going to single out any player at any press conference,” he told reporters on Monday when asked about Abram, one of the Raiders’ most talented players. “We lost that game yesterday because we didn’t get it done. We all got to focus better. We all got to play better and certainly, we all have to coach better.”
Gruden didn’t criticize Abram and spread the blame, and he also declined to praise any of his defenders when given the chance. Asked if any players stood out on film despite the high-scoring performance from the Chiefs, Gruden simply repeated his team-first approach, while acknowledging some adverse conditions.
“We didn’t play well enough on defense. And we can make a lot of excuses and legitimate excuses for that. We’re missing some key players. We have a young secondary,” Gruden said. “We had guys that didn’t practice. We played the world champions coming off a bye week. But we, I say we, me included, we gave up 36 first downs and we didn’t get it done. We’ve got to play a lot better. Because Atlanta, the team we’re about to play, is capable of doing the same thing.”
It’s true that the defense had a challenging week, with much of the group, including Abram, on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and unable to practice. That’s rough when you have to prepare for a potent offense like Kansas City’s. The pandemic has been a challenge for every team this season, however.
But while Gruden isn’t pointing fingers at his players while talking to the media, he must be sore at coming so close to beating the Chiefs for the second time this season. Instead, he watched his defense, under the direction of defensive coordinator Paul Guenther, make Kansas City’s game-sealing drive look exceedingly easy.
With Gruden’s disappointment and newfound responsibility, even for the 36 first downs amassed by the Chiefs, he’ll likely pay more attention to the defensive side of the ball moving forward, especially with Carr’s command of his offense. And it’s a safe bet Gruden was more precise in criticizing his players behind closed doors after the Chiefs game, as he attempts to steer Las Vegas to the playoffs.
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