Fool me one, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me thrice, blow it up. Ok, that last one I made up. But that’s where the Raiders are right now. They’re coming off their third straight blowout loss with each game allowing more points than the last. It’s enough to make you want to throw up. Especially if you’re Jon Gruden.
“I don’t know, it’s sickening,” said Gruden. “It’s tough, but it’s a necessary evil. Right now, we’ve got to play better, and we’re going to play better, and there will be changes. There will be changes. What happened yesterday will not happen again. I can’t allow it to happen.”
There were a lot of drives by the Titans that would make you want to toss your cookies if you’re on the Raiders’ sideline. Three of the Titans’ touchdown drives began inside their 20-yard-line — one at their 16, one at their own 11, and the third time in the second quarter that had them line up at their own 9-yard-line and in one play was a 91-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Tannehill to AJ Brown. Oof.
“It’s like getting punched in the stomach,” Gruden said. “It knocks some wind out of you. Anytime a team takes the ball the length of the field that many times, it’s hard to do in this league. We’ve done a pretty good [job] this year offensively of sustaining some long 80-yard drives, but sometimes you got to win the game of field position, you’ve got to force a three-and-out. We weren’t able to do that yesterday from the jump and very, very concerned about it and we’re going to make some changes. We’re going to get it right.”
Gruden doesn’t just say he’s going to make changes to appease people. He means it when he says it. The day after the team allowed Aaron Rodgers to have a perfect passer rating while throwing for five touchdowns, Gareon Conley was traded to the Texans. Last week, after the Raiders receiving corps put up a pitiful showing in KC last week including Trevor Davis fumbling a kick return and getting stopped on a 4th down play, Davis was cut and Rico Gafford got his first start.
Conley being traded was doable because the team had Trayvon Mullen waiting in the wings and enough other corners to step up the depth chart. Cornerback was the one position on the team that had that kind of depth. It’s harder to see what other positions could see any kind of major changes that might actually improve their situation.
That leads to the question of coaching. Which leads to Paul Guenther. Could Gruden be considering letting Guenther go? Giving up 552 yards of offense should naturally put any defensive coordinator under fire. And those touchdown drives over 80 yards? Well, the Raiders have 16 of them this season, tied for the most in the NFL.
If the previous changes were any indication, we may not have to wait long to find out what Gruden has in mind. With just three games left and the playoffs a long shot, there’s no reason to draw it out. Purge and press on.
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