Another big Arrowhead victory for Gruden
Legend has it that Jon Gruden needed to win at Arrowhead Stadium at the close of the 1999 season to keep his job.
It’s more myth than reality, because no one knows for sure whether Raiders owner Al Davis would have pulled the plug after two 8-8 seasons following an improvement from four wins to eight in 1998 and with only a reliable field goal kicker keeping the Raiders out of the playoffs in 1999.
When the Raiders won 41-38 in overtime that day on a 33-yard field goal by Joe Nedney, Gruden was beside himself. He jumped, he danced, pumped his fist and was borderline crazy out of sheer joy. The Gruden who watched his Raiders beat the Chiefs 40-32 on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium was thrilled but, some 20 years later, more reserved.
Gruden was in full onestep-at-a-time coach mode by the time he sat for his video teleconference, expressing pride in his team’s performance but acknowledging the injur y toll through five games and saying his team has a long ways to go.
He’s right, of course. The Raiders are 3-2 heading in to their bye week. They won nothing but a single game,
albeit at a place where they hadn’t won since 2012.
It was a bigger win for quarterback Derek Carr, given he’d never won in Kansas City and is in Year 3 with Gruden. Carr needed the win desperately. Gruden merely wanted it in the worst way. Turns out he won it in the best way.
If you believe the myth of 1999 (the game actually took place in 2000 in Week 17) and a firing was imminent, taking down the Chiefs on Sunday was Gruden’s second most significant win as Raiders head coach, and without question the biggest win in his second tenure.
It proved his style of offense can be explosive as well as physical and deliberate. Although executed in a different manner, it was the classic Bill Walsh-style game plan. Throw the house at the opponent with all the bells and whistles in the first half. Then work the clock and grind the opponent into a fine powder in the second half.
Gruden refused to get caught up in a shootout just because the first half was headed that way. He played to the strengths of his team and his own beliefs. The Raiders controlled the tempo, dictated the pace and actually ran it more times than they passed (35 to 31). He utilized receivers Henry Ruggs III and Nelson Agholor to loosen things up. In the second half, the Chiefs had to respect that threat even as Gruden was throwing body blows instead of knockout left hooks to the jaw.
When asked about the early deep strikes, Gruden couldn’t help but poke fun at statistical analysis website Pro Football Focus, one of several analytics outlets that record every play and deem his offense unwilling and unable to throw the ball downfield. According to the NFL’s NextGen stats, Carr’s touchdown passes of 59 yards to Agholor and 72 yards to Ruggs were the first time a Raiders quarterback had thrown two scoring passes of 50 or more yards since Tom Flores in 1966.
Flores threw touchdown passes of 75 yards to Billy Cannon and 76 yards to Hewritt Dixon on Oct. 13, 1966 at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, which predated the construction of Arrowhead Stadium. The Raiders won 34-13. If my math is correct, that was 826 games ago.
“We try to be aggressive. We threw it down the field today,” Gruden said. “Some of the Pro Football Focus statisticians will have to scratch their heads. They’ll say, ‘ Did he really do that?’”
Most important, he was at one with Carr, the quarterback who has supposedly been out the door every time Gruden looks impatient. The same Gruden who looks impatient every 10 minutes yet has never drafted a rookie quarterback intending him to the be the starter.
Gruden’s return in 2018 has been met with legions of skeptics and one-liners, fueled by the reported 10-year, $100 million contract that has been accepted as fact but never verified. He’s prone to exaggeration to make a point, which is fodder for “Gotcha” attacks on social and mainstream media even if both mediums are rife with the same.
But things are looking up. Gruden even found a facemask he liked Sunday, switching to a black bandana, and had it in place every time the camera was on him.
So Gruden will be en vogue again until the next loss, with the only way to gain acceptance a playoff berth that looked more within reach Sunday than at any time since he returned.
GUENTHER’S BIG DAY >> Raiders defensive coordinator Paul Guenther has incurred the wrath of much of Raider nation. One can’t blame them, really, after so many years of sub-par defense, most of which predated Guenther’s arrival with Gruden.
After the loss to Buffalo there was no sign of a Raiders defense that could be worthy of a playoff berth, and it felt that way at halftime as the Chiefs moved at will.
As for holding Patrick Mahomes to three straight punts and then an interception by Jeff Heath to set up a game-sealing touchdown, who could have saw that coming?
In Las Vegas parlance, Guenther’s been dealt some bad hands. Khalil Mack was out the door before Guenther coached him. The payroll has been weighted toward offense. Personnel has been a revolving door. Injuries have been frequent. And this year’s influx of free agents didn’t get an offseason or regular training camp because of the coronavirus pandemic. Guenther moved from the sideline to the coaches’ box against Buffalo to get a different vantage point. He was back on the sideline Sunday.
Other than Carr and Gruden, Guenther probably enjoyed the flight home as much as anybody. Maybe more.
JACOBS AND THE MARCUS ALLEN INFLUENCE >> Running back Josh Jacobs has kept up a running dialogue with none other than Marcus Allen, which he discussed following the game. They’ve talked about everything from running to pass blocking to leadership.
“We talk about once a week,” Jacobs said. “We’ll get on the phone and I’ll ask him for pointers, what I can do better, things like that.”
Jacobs, who had touchdown runs of 7 and 2 yards Sunday, has watched Allen closely in terms of getting into the end zone. His second score came on a classic Allen leap and dive.
“He’s one of the best goal-line, short-yardage runners that I’ve watched on tape, so I try to ask him how I do that too,” Jacobs said.
TRENT BROWN’S IMPACT >> After playing three snaps in his previous nine games, Trent Brown went wire to wire at right tackle against the Chiefs after recovering from a calf injury and made his presence felt.
” He’s a freak,” Jacobs said. “When he’s healthy, there’s nobody like him.”
As much as it’s hard to watch someone taking up a good chunk of the salary cap on the sideline, if Brown manages to play the last 12 games at peak level sitting out most of the first four games will seem like a small price to pay. INVADING ARROWHEAD >> A paid, socially distanced crowd of 13,331 marked the first time the Raiders played this year with fans in the seats. And somehow Raiders fans not only got in to the stadium but made themselves heard.