The Oakland Raiders entered Sunday on a three-game winning streak. They faced the lowly New York Jets. Next week’s matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs could have put the Raiders in pole position in the AFC West.
All the classic signs screamed “Trap Game” Sunday.
Jon Gruden’s squad got trapped in East Rutherford, New Jersey, couldn’t run away and got pounded by the Jets 34-3.
“We got our face kicked in a little bit,” an angered Derek Carr said after the beatdown, via Vic Tafur of The Athletic. “You try and look forward and hopefully, it wakes everybody up. … We better show up (against the Chiefs) or they’re going to beat us by 50.”
Several Raiders insisted Sunday wasn’t a trap game.
You say poh-tay-toe, I say poh-tah-toe.
“We didn’t show up and we got our asses kicked,” defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins said.
Bingo.
The Raiders were their own worst enemy Sunday, looking still half-asleep for the 1 p.m. East Coast kickoff. They couldn’t get pressure on Sam Darnold despite the Jets owning one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. The run game was shut down by New York. And several costly drops early plagued the offense in the mucky, rain-soaked conditions.
“That was a big part of it, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse,” coach Jon Gruden said of the dropped passes. “They don’t call games off in this league. There’s not a dome here that they can put over the field. We dropped passes. Hell, we dropped four center-quarterback exchanges in the second half.
“We missed tackles. We missed field goals. We missed an opportunity to show our fans that came out today what kind of football team we are. I’m really disappointed in it.”
For a young, growing team, flubs like Sunday happen. With rookies playing key roles on both sides of the ball, the Raiders haven’t been through the firestorm of a full regular season of battles to know there is no Midwest Alabama State Tech on the schedule like in college.
The loss got so depressing, Gruden waived the white flag early, inserting backup QB Mike Glennon with 1:49 left in the third quarter.
For all the goodwill the Raiders built up during their three-game winning streak, Sunday’s loss to the Jets will have critics once again peering side-eyed at Oakland, wondering if they’re a team capable of pushing for the playoffs.
Even as disheartening as Sunday’s loss is, the young Raiders can use it as a stepping stone to grow in the future.
“As frustrating as (this loss) is, let’s be honest, these six games that we’ve won, no one thought we could do that with who we have,” Carr said. “We’re still a good football team, but it is what it is. We’re still building that foundation.”
Oakland now sits at 6-5, along with a host of other teams vying for the final playoff spot. With games against the 7-4 Chiefs and 6-5 Titans on tap the next two weeks, we’ll find out whether Gruden’s team has enough to overcome Sunday’s big hiccup.
“You ever been on a boat that’s sinking? It’s not happy,” he said. “It’s not pleasant. It’s adversity, it’s football. You have to respond to adversity. We didn’t do a good enough job as coaches rallying our troops today. … I’m emotional about it.
“I’m really anxious to get on to the next game.”
That game against a division rival who is coming off a bye week looms massive for Oakland’s immediate future.