Raiders win title: Worst Bay Area team
Well, we finally got our answer. The worst NFL team in the Bay Area? The Raiders. By a formidable margin. In the final “Battle of the Bay,” the 49ers, led by an undrafted free agent making his NFL debut, made the Raiders look like a junior-varsity team that didn’t want to be anywhere near the big boy field.
The Raiders appear to be a team that either has quit on the head coach or is tanking, or both.
“I’m not going to say anything about the effort,” Jon Gruden said after his team’s abysmal one. “I thought the guys fought until the end.”
It didn’t look like it. Nor did it look like the guys fought at the beginning. The 49ers had won only
one game coming into this matchup but by halftime, they led 17-3. They opened the second half with another touchdown, and coasted through the final quarter. Gruden took out Derek Carr in the fourth quarter, for his own safety. Final score: 49ers 34, Raiders 3.
Fittingly, the California portion of the series ends in a tie, 7-7.
The Raiders will end the series because they are leaving the Bay Area and won’t play another regular-season game with the 49ers until 2022. At one juncture, this game might have been a preview of a shared Bay Area stadium by the teams, but Raiders owner Mark Davis was determined not to let that happen. So by the time the teams next meet, the Raiders will be in Las Vegas, assuming the franchise hasn’t been run into the ground or sold to a Mumbai investment group. After Thursday’s effort, nothing seems certain.
This was the formal goodbye match between the teams. The Raiders are making it so ridiculously easy to say goodbye. They have taken their historical dysfunction to a new, unexpected, level.
On Thursday, the Raiders looked every bit like a team that had quit, either from the demoralized bottom up or the draftscheming top down. The Raiders are a team determined to get the No. 1 draft pick. They appear to be a team that has quit on its much-hyped head coach. They seem to be a team that had no faith in its ability to win a game, no desire to embrace a scheme, no will to make an effort.
Gruden said he took full responsibility, but he managed to mention both a short week and an injured offensive line. The 49ers had the same short week, even more injuries, and were starting a third-string quarterback.
The Raiders got destroyed by a team that has been swept this season by the Arizona Cardinals. With an accomplished quarterback in an Oakland uniform, they managed just three points against the 28thranked defense in terms of points allowed. The 49ers came into the game with 16 sacks, tied for 25th in the league, yet were able to sack Carr seven times — a career high — before Carr was replaced by AJ McCarron (who then was sacked once himself ). The Raiders’ porous defense allowed plays of 71, 53 and 52 yards.
This dysfunction can be traced directly to Sept. 1, the day the Raiders traded Khalil Mack, the team’s best player. Gruden’s decision not only gutted the defense, but also the heart of the locker room. The remaining Raiders had to process the reality that there was no intent to win this season. Losses piled up and the trade of Amari Cooper last week only solidified the knowledge that the current season is meaningless.
Draft picks, not wins, are the currency that the Raiders and Gruden value. Raiders fans, who firmly believe the team is tanking, saw only more proof in the game: a 3-yard pass on 3rdand-23 ... a field-goal attempt while trailing by 28 in the fourth quarter.
Before the game, Gruden gave an odd interview to Fox Sports.
“I’ve got a cell phone, just like you and everybody else,” he proclaimed. “I get a lot of phone calls from people that are dying to come play here. I’m just telling you. They’re dying to play for the Raiders.
“To have salary-cap space and to have a chance to talk to the people that you really want to wear the silver and black — that’s exciting.”
Not only does Gruden sound like he’s channeling Al Davis with all that cliche “Commitment to Excellence” hype (maybe Mark is paying $100 million for a father figure), but it also was a befuddling thing to say. Is he going to build the team through free agency (which we all know is not the correct way to build an NFL team)? Because it seems unlikely that a bunch of college juniors and seniors — the players who are going to be drafted — have his cell-phone number.
“I’m not going to get into who calls me and texts me,” Gruden said after the game.
When asked if he thought a statement like that sends the wrong message to his existing players, Gruden went into hype mode.
“I’m just trying to get people excited about the Oakland Raiders,” he said. “The Oakland Raiders is a great organization, I know it’s not looking pretty ... but we’re going to build a championship football team here.”
Where is here? The Oakland Raiders are almost a thing of the past. And Thursday’s effort is not going to make any worthy player excited to join the operation.
Gruden looked frustrated and exasperated after the game. Which was appropriate. He just presided over what might be the most embarrassing loss in Raiders history.