Head coach Jack Del Rio knows what the Raiders need to getting back to winning games again.
Coming from an experienced head coach (and former player), you might hope for a better plan moving forward than to re-establish “mojo”, but that’s what Del Rio says the Raiders need to do.
Considering it’s a fairly difficult term to define, maybe “mojo” actually is the most accurate assessment of what’s missing with the Raiders.
No one knows what left the Raiders on that fateful Sunday night game against the Redskins, but without question, something left.
“Part of the reason I think they lost their mojo was that Sunday night game in Washington,” Raiders play-by-play voice Greg Papa said Friday on his 95.7 The Game radio show. “I keep going back to that and it was just the stage was big, maybe it was the Trump tweets from Alabama… and the sit down.”
Derek Carr went into the Washington game with an undefeated record and was playing as well as ever (5 TD, 0 INT), but since week two, the Raiders have a 1-5 record and Carr has thrown 7 touchdowns to 6 interceptions.
Maybe the Redskins gave the league the blueprint to beating the Raiders or maybe the team simply lost it’s confidence after getting punched in the mouth on primetime television. Maybe something did happen in the locker room. Whatever it was, nothing has been the same since. The Raiders have been getting pushed around, beat up, laying down, coordinators are being scrutinized at every opportunity, and worst of all… the season is dangerously close to reaching a point of no return.
Sunday in Miami will be one more (and maybe last) chance to find the elusive “mojo” that followed the Raiders around for all of the 2016 season. No one can explain exactly what it is, but we all know enough about “mojo” to know when it’s gone.
It left on a balmy Sunday night on the east coast. Maybe the mojo will come back on a balmy Sunday night on the east coast… and hopefully hang around for a while this time.
twitter: @raidersbeat
You are correct. The redskins exposed the new offense. What happened that night against the redskins would not have happened had they kept Bill Musgrave as offensive coordinator. The offense that the raiders run now comes from Derek’s days at Fresno State. College offense are successful because of physical dominance(speed, strength, height, weight). In big boy football you must win physically and mentally.
The solution is obvious. Call Norv Turner and have him install his big boy offense and get ready for next season.
Ha, that’s a laugh. Norv Turner was once the head coach of the Raiders. Do you think he would now accept a coordinators job with them?
Derek Carr lost his confidence when he broke his leg. The new coordinator is playing to that default. Until they understand that the team comes before that bromance, we will continue to fail. 14 years I been on this rode, 14 more I will go. RaiderNation for life!!!
I put a hex on the Raiders after seeing their terrible behavior at the Skin’s game.
well……..first of all I blame Mark Davis & his decision to change OC’s last year tho O wasn’t the issue ,IT WAS THE DEFENSE ………..and still is
Norv is one of the greatest OC’s. HC, not so much.
I thought the same thing Steve, bye week is coming up. I’m tired of hiring up n comers or lifers who never were a top 5 coach. Turner is a suckass at head coach, but that man can dial up a game on the fly. Something downing is still wet behind the ears in his first gig. My wish list. Fire both coordinators next yr. Hire norv to run offense and steal Jim Schwartz from Philly. **** give him a title of assistant head coach. We got too much talent that isn’t being pulled out of these guys. And for God sake Reggie, quit drafting choirs boys and start drafting some animals. His early draft picks after Mack and Carr have sucked ***
What happened was a team divided all over BLM bullshit. Stand for your flag united as anation and a team. The offense and defense and coaching is fine. Get over it and move forward.
Yes, we need hungry animals – they don’t need to be coached on how to be motivated!! Same goes for the coaches….they have to totally hate losing and do anything to win. What happen to just win baby!!
Our offense wasn’t great the year Musgrave was on the sidelines, but did work with him in the booth and Todd relaying to Carr and DelRay happy that he didn’t have to look at Musgrave. However, DelRay hated Musgrave and we weren’t too happy either. So we didn’t have a problem win him moving on as our focus was on Kenny, and the scapegoat was Db coach Robinson.
Come to find out that our DBs stunkso we had to vanilla our Seattle defense because we couldn’t do it. We started running quarters to to keep the WRs in front of Smith and Nelson, because they were slow and Nelson doest community. We switched to 3-4 and cover 2 to apply pressure, but didn’t have the personnel to crush the LT side of the line. So we blamed the interior of the line. Irvin just don’t have it. Cover 2 works if there a pass rush, which is why we are moving Mack around to the left side more often.
Back to the offense. Todd doesn’t Havre a playbook, si he relies on Carr’s Fresno experience, which never won nothing in the NFL. This Carr’s offense, blame Del Rio. This Reggie‘s defense, blame FA and draft picks.
Yea I was there for that game… and was left with a huge “WTF”…. I think we have some locker room issues honestly.. This team has not been playing like the cohesive unit we saw last year… Letting the OC walk could be deemed as a bad decision but I think we are definitely relying on Carr’s arm way too early in games.. Last Years O-Line would kine up and smack you in the mouth… This year they have been passive to me and I think that all comes from trying to get Carr a 300 yard passing game every game… K.I.S.S….. “RUN THE BALL!!”
any Raider fan knows it was when Lynch danced his jig on the sideline. He is rogue and not a team player other players caught that as uncoachable. against a team like Patriots yes not Jets. He does his own thing and that would rattle any player or coach.
Just wondering if when Carr stood for National anthem and the others set if that’s divided the locker room. If so I would clean house after the season. Plus also penn setting out then getting more money then not doing his job.
“Our offense wasn’t great” with Musgrave?!? I beg to differ.
I agree.
Under bill Musgrave Adrian Petersen ran for 2097 yards in a season. He’s a good offensive coordinator. A run first coordinator which probably contributed to his contract not being renewed.