Winless teams don’t stay that way forever. Each week they play, there is a chance that will be the week things fall the right way, and they pull out their first win. And it doesn’t always happen against the opponent against whom you think it will happen. Often times it’s a team you wouldn’t have expected.
This week the Raiders are hoping to not be THAT opponent as they face the 0-9 Bengals.
Aiding in their ability to fend off complacency is the fact that they have a quarterback and an offensive coordinator who has been here before.
Back in 2014, the Raiders, with rookie quarterback Derek Carr starting every game, and Greg Olson as offensive coordinator were 0-10 before getting their first win. And it wasn’t against a patty cake team either. That win came against a 7-3 Chiefs team coming off five straight wins.
No one thought the Raiders would win that game. If anything, they thought it would be a slaughter. But newly appointed starter Latavius Murray broke off two touchdown runs, and Derek Carr threw a late game-winning touchdown to James Jones to come out with a 24-20 victory.
Carr knows that you don’t take these kinds of games for granted, because it’s any given Sunday and stunners happen.
They are in the middle of installing their system. They are in the middle of trying to figure out what offense and defense fit with their personnel that they are trying to do and all those kinds of things, they are in the middle of that. So, who says it wouldn’t click this week, right? And so, I don’t care about records, man. I prepare every game as if this is the game and so there is no, ‘They haven’t won a game…’. I don’t care how many games they have or haven’t won, they got Pro Bowlers all over their football team and they are going to bring it, that’s for sure.
Every week the odds go up that the Bengals will get that first win. After all, it was just a couple weeks ago the Dolphins were 0-7, and now they’ve won two straight games. When the Raiders won their first game in 2014, they played .500 (3-3) football the rest of the way.
It’s a benefit to have your quarterback having been on a winless team, figured things out, and pulled out a big win. He knows not to overlook this opponent because he was that opponent once and overcame it. But his experience and outlook can’t simply rub off on the rest of the team. It’s the coaches’ jobs to instill that.
That’s where Greg Olson comes in, having coached Carr and the rest of the offense through that stretch. When he preaches to the players not to take the Bengals lightly, he speaks from experience.
Much like the Raiders in 2014 with Latavius Murray lighting a fire under the offense, the Bengals made a quarterback change last week to trying and shake things up. Rookie Ryan Finley replaced longtime starter, Andy Dalton.
Finley and the Bengals offense scored just 13 points last week against the Ravens, so there was no instant gratification to the change at quarterback. And who knows, Finley could end up like Derek Carr and start his career with a long losing streak. He could also surprise the Raiders because there isn’t a lot of NFL tape of him to study. After all, the Raiders have been most vulnerable against the pass all season,
The problems for the Bengals go well beyond their quarterback. For instance, they have the league’s worst defense.
These factors, along with the Raiders being 5-4 and going 4-1 at home (including the “home” game in London), are why the Raiders are 10.5-point favorites over the Bengals.
In case you were wondering, the Chiefs were 7-point favorites when they lost to the 0-10 Raiders in 2014. There can be no let-up in these Raiders. This week as much or more than any other.
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