How a loss to Atlanta, devastating as it was, could be a wake-up call for the Raiders
Maybe a lopsided loss to the Atlanta Falcons will serve as a wake-up call for the Las Vegas Raiders down the stretch.
Just when everything seemed to be going well, with an NFL playoff berth easily within sight, a 43-6 upset loss to the Falcons left a bad taste in the Raiders players mouths on Sunday.
Throughout the season, the Raiders have been playing as if they were among the AFC’s best. Even in a couple of their losses — which have come to the likes of the New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — they showed flashes of strength.
The Raiders generally were in those games, at least at some point. Week 12, however, was a lot different for the Raiders. But among the coaching staff and players, it was Sunday’s struggles, not those earlier games on the 2020 schedule, that are the outlier.
Just ask Derek Carr.
“I’ve been here, I think now, me and Gabe (Jackson) have been here the longest,” Carr said “It doesn’t feel like that. I have felt that around the guys where they’ll be like, ‘Ah crap, here we go.’ It’s not the same, for whatever that’s worth, it’s not. I know that feeling, I’ve seen that feeling, the frustration.”
Jon Gruden: It’s ‘on me’
Coach Jon Gruden vowed that his team will learn from the loss, a process that begins with him.
“We’ve got to learn from our mistakes,” he said. “We didn’t play well. We just put it behind us, and that’s what we have to do and that’s what we will do. We’ve got to get up off the mat and fight back better as a coaching staff and as a football team. It’s a reflection on me.”
During the course of the past week, after a 35-31 loss to a Chiefs team that is on track to make a run at a Super Bowl repeat, the Raiders received a ton of praise from the national media.
It turned into a jinx, as it has in seasons past, hitting the Raiders in a major way Sunday.
But the big loss could serve as motivation for the remainder of the season — so some good still could come from the game.
“I don’t think there’s a fear because we control it,” Raiders wide receiver Hunter Renfrow said. “We have a lot of good guys on our team and a lot of football character guys. We control our destiny. We really do.
“It does feel different this year. It really does. We’ll keep saying that and we just got to finish better than we did last year. Just flush it and have a good week.”
NFL playoffs? Next games are big
Las Vegas will need to win its remaining games, as the cliche goes, to “control its own “destiny.”
And they are all big games.
That includes Week 13, even against the winless New York Jets (0-11). Kickoff is 10 a.m. PST Sunday.
After the Jets, the Raiders get three straight home games against the Indianapolis Colts (7-4), Los Angeles Chargers (3-8) and Miami Dolphins (7-4) before wrapping up the season on the road against the Denver Broncos (4-7).
The Dolphins and Colts are sixth and seventh, respectively, in the AFC playoff picture. The top seven teams in each conference will advance to the playoffs. Las Vegas is ninth, but still close to a berth at 6-5.
But the math and attitude won’t mean much if they can’t go on a winning streak, starting with the Jets. Renfrow and others remember all too well what happened last year when the teams met.
“We have a chance to go out there and fight and really have that opportunity to get better next week,” Renfrow said. “It’s a good opportunity to go to the Jets. They derailed our season last year and what an opportunity for us to go in there and kind of get some redemption per se.”
This story was originally published November 30, 2020 at 9:00 AM.
