NBCSports- In the team’s season-opening 33-13 drubbing at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams, Jared Goff sat back and picked the Raiders' secondary apart. Without a pass rush pressuring the third-year pro out of Cal, he opened up the field with his arm. With the defense chasing, the Rams turned to star running back Todd Gurley to further complicate matters.
“When you can run the ball like they ran in the second half, it’s very hard to rush the passer,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said. “Obviously, we didn’t get to Goff enough, and we didn’t get to Gurley enough. We’ll take a good look at the reasons why we didn’t.” ------- I almost...almost...feel bad for Jon Gruden. There's just absolutely nothing he can say without sounding stupid. Maybe that's fitting, as the decision that put him in this position was decidedly dumb. That said, it'll be years until we learn exactly how dumb it was to create another gapping hole in a Raiders' defense that was already filled with them by trading away the type of transformative talent that can cover up the deficiencies of the men behind him...
Unfortunately, until that time arrives, the urge to chastise Chucky literally every time Khalil Mack has a great game is going to be too much to resist. Add in his insistence that he has his answer at quarterback, and every time Derek Carr puts forth a performance that makes his contract (that's eerily similar to the one the otherworldly pass rusher was asking for) seem laughable is going to damn near demand ire. We are just one week into the Jon Gruden era, and already everything that could go wrong predictably has gone wrong. In a little over a 24 hour period, Khalil Mack did all he could in dragging the Bears by their balls in a heartbreaking loss to a division rival and Derek Carr aimlessly lofted up any chance that the Raiders might have had against a superior Rams team into the awaiting arms of their secondary...
If things keep up at this pace, even the undefeated internet might manage to exhaust itself of mocking Jon Gruden before one of his shiny new first round picks has an actual name and face. He can't even utter the words "pass rush" without making football fans from far and wide do the social media equivalent of smacking him on his sunburned nose with a rolled up newspaper. Any defense he offers for himself is about as leaky as the one he put on the field last night, and there's no real reason to believe it's going to get better (or he's going to get less delusional) anytime soon.
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