Raiders a wreck? 5 reasons to remain optimistic
ALAMEDA — You can see the connection — Shell comes back 12 years after being Raiders head coach, Jon Gruden returns after nine years in the broadcast booth.
Yet I’m here to tell you the vibe in the locker room after Sunday’s 40-33 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was one of the strangest I’ve experienced. In a win-or-else league, the Raiders embraced the concept of putting up the good fight even if it’s frowned upon in a win-or-else society.
“To go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the league, it was good to see,” veteran defensive end Frostee Rucker said. “No one’s happy about the loss, but it was great to watch these guys compete. Something is building here. You’ve got to take the silver lining.”
Rucker may be back in 2018, he may not. He was drafted in 2006 by Cincinnati — the same year Shell came back to he Raiders. When 2019 rolls around, Rucker, 35, may be retired or looking for a job.
He didn’t come back to be 210 any more than Gruden returned to coaching to be in last place in the AFC West. Yet he’s sincerely on board.
The Raiders are within reach of the first pick of the NFL draft but at the same time are showing some fight and some pride with a quarter of the season remaining.
It counts for nothing at the moment, with Gruden’s hope being something has been established that can carry on whether the home venue next season is Oakland or a temporary stopover somewhere else before settling in to their new digs in Las Vegas.
The end of the Shell season in 2006 was like a weekly funeral. The 2018 Raiders actually appear to be enjoying what they’re doing and are showing some improvement.
The local fan base deserves more than that, but based on three good seasons since coming back to Oakland in 1995, they’ve come to learn they seldom get what they deserve.
The Raiders remain a national punchline at the moment, reminded weekly of the trades of Khalil Mack and Amari Cooper by their supposedly hopelessly out-oftouch coach. But piling on is easy. Much more difficult is finding five reasons for cautious optimism heading in to the future other than having a lot of draft picks:
The Raiders are better than the 49ers
A little over a month ago, I called a 34-3 loss to the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium the low point in the history of the franchise for a regular season
game and I stand by it. The Raiders were humiliated by their cross-bay rival and first-time starter Nick Mullens.
I tried to sell Gruden on the idea that it was a watershed moment for the season, since the Raiders have played with much more emotion and enthusiasm ever since. He wasn’t buying it. He said he hates Thursday night football, particularly on the road, and that his offensive line was in shambles.
Fair enough.
But there was a meeting with the rookie class after that loss and an obvious emphasis on trying to put some joy back in the game. The Raiders have won just one game since, but in no way have resembled the team that got worked over by a bad 49ers team.
Gruden, despite his reputation for histrionics, kept his head throughout that debacle and made it actually work in his favor.
Opponents are looking at the Raiders now as perhaps devoid of talent, but at least dangerous enough to put up a fight.
The 49ers? Not so much. That probably shouldn’t matter much to Raiders fans, but it always has.’
The Carr-Gruden partnership is working
Turns out getting quarterback Derek Carr integrated in the system was a lot more involved than having him stand up in front of the team in Napa and correctly recite reams of information from the playbook.
Carr has gone from pretty much a spread formation quarterback to someone who can operate from the shotgun as well as under center. He’s becoming the CEO quarterback Gruden hoped for, and the fact that the two occasionally are arguing about how to go about it is a good thing, not a bad thing.
It only seems like it’s taken forever. It’s been just 12 games. Don’t get caught up in the analytics about yards downfield and the like. It’s about a quarterback taking control of a new system, learning how to avoid mistakes first and then attack and be bold later.
The offensive line is coming around
The interior of the Raiders line — guards Kelechi Osemele and Gabe Jackson and center Rodney Hudson — is intact and currently playing well. Osemele missed two games with a knee injury and it hurt.
The rookie tackles, Kolton Miller on the left and Brandon Parker on the right, have taken their lumps. Miller battled through a knee issue and appears to be regaining his health when some were wondering if shutting him down wasn’t the best course of action.
The offensive line is one area where nostalgia matters.
The Raiders through their history have been built around offensive line play. It fueled their one-year resurgence in 2016. It’s amazing what a good run block or solid pass blocking can do to help out an offense.
The middle three linemen look to have at least a year or two left, and quantum Year 2 leaps by Miller and Parker would bode well for 2019.
Practice habits are being established
It’s the easiest thing in the world to think that young talent should immediately see the field so they can be developed. The problem is, if they don’t practice well or apply themselves in the meeting rooms, then disaster ensues and the rest of the roster wonders why playing time is being doled out to those who need to step it up.
Players such as Conley and safety Karl Joseph on defense were never taken to task for their practice habits (both have also had issues in the past remaining healthy) but it’s no accident that the surge in their play of late has had to do with increased practice time and familiarity with the system.
Fans have hung in there
Raider fans amaze me. I’ve long believed there isn’t nearly as many of them locally or globally as the organization would have you believe.
When the Raiders kick off for home games, I look in the stands and think this is the week people stop showing up. And while there are some empty seats, the support is much more than the organization deserves considering the product on the field and the fact that they’re heading out of town sooner or later.
If they’re not staying away in droves at 2-10, the Raiders can count on support over the last four games and next season barring an early departure.
Maybe they’ll even have something to cheer about before the Raiders leave town.