Hosting the lowly Carolina Panthers this week in their regular season home opener, the Raiders were one of the league’s heaviest favorites to get a win.
Gardner Minshew was coming away from a strong performance against the Baltimore Ravens, and the Raiders were finally getting the respect they felt they deserved.
But rather than stake their claim as one of the promising young teams in the NFL, the Raiders lost to the Panthers in embarrassing fashion. At one point in the fourth quarter, the Raiders were down 33-7 and were being outplayed in every aspect of the game.
Top to bottom, the Raiders looked like the worst team in the league.
A couple of garbage time touchdowns closed the gap in the fourth quarter, but Raiders’ flagship radio host ‘JT the Brick’ still called the game one of the most disappointing he has covered since joining the organization.
“That was the worst football game I’ve ever been to at Allegiant Stadium. That goes to the worst football game, the top of the list of professional football played at Allegiant Stadium by the Las Vegas Raiders,” JT said on his weekday Raider Nation Radio program.
“That stands alone as the worst football game I have seen when it comes to outcome, storylines, and effort. It is worse than the Jeff Saturday game. It is worse than the Kyler Murray comeback because the Raiders actually showed up in the first half of that game,” JT continued. “It was worse than the 3-0 loss to Minnesota. It is the worst game that I’ve ever been through as a member of the organization and a fan in regard to what was at stake and what happened in the game. They absolutely no-showed, no-showed the season opener at home.”
Coming from the airwaves of the team’s flagship radio station, it was no small statement from JT to rank Sunday’s loss as the worst ever at Allegiant Stadium.
To his point, though, there was nothing to take away from Sunday’s game and feel good about as a Raider fan.
If anything, Aidan O’Connell’s performance in garbage time might have only created a quarterback controversy. Head coach Antiono Pierce wouldn’t rule out a change at quarterback during Monday’s press conference, but it was reported later in the day that Gardner Minshew will start in week 4 against the Browns.
The Browns (1-2) will travel to Las Vegas this week and they are in a position just as desperate as the Raiders. The biggest difference in Cleveland, though, is that they have a $230 million quarterback on the roster that hasn’t been playing well.
It’s been rumored that the Browns are looking at ways to potentially get out of Deshaun Watson’s contract, and that’s an unenviable position that even the Raiders don’t find themselves in at the moment.
Without question, the Raiders have to find a way to win this week.
Every extreme option should be on the table if they don’t.
x: @raidersbeat
The Raiders are no longer worth me investing my time in. 20 years of the same BS. NFL is dead to me. Ill stick with the NBA and MLB.
Like Anybody with even a semi-functioning Brain Gives one Shiite about What the Brick has to say anymore. The man who Supported The Clown Coach full heartedly until Fired because, like the Brick S-House said, “I know His Plan and It Is Great”. The Only Plan JT knew was How to Protect his Own Paycheck. I fondly remember listening to him Many Moons ago when he was Relevant… Not the tired, Money Grubbing, Egotistical “Insider” that he has Become with Time. This All Plays out No Matter What HIs Opinion is because he does not matter…
Bench Crosby so he can heal and be ready for next year. Trade Adam’s for Hasson Riddick. Give him the contract that KOUNCE would have got. Change the online to Miller Merideth Rookie JPJ Durham and Munford. Fire offensive coordinator. Players that quit during the game bench trader cut. At least don’t let them start. Minshew is not or never should have been the starting QB. He’s nothing but dink dunk. Runs before he needs to missing open players. He looks lost running this offense. Time to see if AOC is a future option or not. They may as well tank the season and have a fire sale if they keep Minshew in and make no changes to improve this season. And then fire the coach get a top QB in the draft and start from scratch like other teams have been doing instead of these retred guys that are going nowhere. Minshew isn’t the next Plunkett. Mark Davis needs to sell the team. He can’t hire a decent coach.
I will disagree with JT. The 3-0 game against the Vikings was the worst game the raiders ever played.
Our defense that game was goofing off so that’s why we lost and we should have won.
we are getting smoked against the browns and broncos
soooooooooooooooooooooo embarrassing we beat the ravens one of the best teams in the league but we lose to the panthers
maybe we need to go after better defense
I’m a hard core Raiders fans, born 3 miles from Oakland Stadium. This game is just a sign. There is only 1 offensive threat, D Adams. Zero others threats so defense can cheat and will. The Raiders defense won the Ravens game not the offense.i just hope we can win some division games.
I totally agree. What an embarasment. This team looked like garbage. Same old story year in and year out.
I can’t believe we are trading our best receiver Davante Adams for a 2nd round pick
we’re going to lose today we play the broncos in Denver and we beat the browns. but we are still going to lose.
at least were not the cardinals
I told you we would lose against Denver
we still suck
I agree I want to win at least 1 division game this season.