The Raiders Problems Go Beyond QB After Low Point Loss To Falcons (Detailed Breakdown)

Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen of the Bleacher Report world and or YouTube post Bleacher Report live stream world. Either way you watch, my name stays the same, it's Rodney and the team I root for stays the same. Although at times when you watch them you think, maybe I'll give the Bills a try. But then you go, no I can't do that because one day when I'm 65 they're going to win a Super Bowl. And all my friends who know me as the lone Raider fan that they know, especially because I'm from the East Coast, they're going to call if they're still alive and say, how does it feel? And I'm going to say, wasn't worth it. But here we are. Anyway, let's discuss all things Raiders and Falcons. Cody Bellinger just got traded to the Yankees. Not a baseball show, but wow, that was something I didn't expect. Anyway, let's talk about the Raiders and the Falcons. Week 15 recap. Three more games to go. Three more merciful, stinky games to go. This was the fourth to last game and it was just as stinky as all the other ones. I would argue, this might sound crazy, I would argue the low point of the season. And some people might say, it was this game or that game. We'll get into that in a second. But you guys know the drill. Where are we watching from? Are you watching from the United States? Are you watching from a different continent? Are you watching from Mars? I want to know in the bleach report live stream, who do I got in here? Who is watching or after the fact on YouTube? And yes, I do have a YouTube channel. If you're interested, it is all aboard Raiders. Go check that out. Comment away where we're watching from. What's your headspace right now? Because I will say it is equal parts depressing and liberating to take in Raider games consistently this year and not give a rip what's going on. Anytime Desmond Ritter would throw a hospital brawl or anytime sincere McCormick would fumble, or I guess it was Alexander Madison who fumbled yesterday. I felt nothing. Now that's a positive and a negative because I feel robotic in terms of, well, this is just another year, another Raiders season. But this season has been particularly bad because even last year or the year before that, we were in all these games. We were not eliminated from playoff contention until the second to last week last year. We got eliminated mid-November this year. So like I said, throw those comments in the chat, throw the comments in the YouTube comment section after the fact. But let's talk about the box score here. Now, I don't want to spend too, too much time on this horrific display of football from really both football teams. 15 to nine is your final score. I'm really going to do my best to break this down as if this is relevant at all. 15 to nine. Total yardage was pretty close. Wait, hold on. Am I reading this correctly? Kirk Cousins only had 93 passing yards. Is that right? Kirk Cousins had 93 passing yards. I don't even know what to say about that. I'm not really usually looking at the Falcons box score, but that's, I'll tell you what, the Falcons needed to steal Michael Panics from us. Okay, let's look for a little bit. We got more first downs than them. Third down efficiency was terrible on both sides. Both teams are getting pressure. We punted five times. Two of those were blocked. Pretty rare. Penalties was, you know, hit or miss, and they obviously won the turnover battle and had more time possession. The Vikings are, the Vikings, the Falcons are a really bad football team. Okay? Really bad right now. They've got weapons all over the place. The broad, which was just so boring, was talking about the Raiders' weapons versus the Falcons' weapons, and you saw that it just didn't matter who was out there offensively for the Falcons if you don't have a quarterback. And right now, Kirk Cousins, who early on in the season, and we'll get into if we were happy about the win or the loss. Kirk Cousins early on in the season was okay. I would say he's even good. They had the Chiefs on the ropes, although that's not that hard this year. He has completely fallen off a cliff and shown you just how important a quarterback is. It doesn't matter if you have all the weapons in the world. Kirk Cousins cannot throw the football. And with that being said, he's a hundred times better than Desmond Ritter. So let's move on to our stats, because this is, um, I don't really know what to say about the stats of this game. Desmond Ritter was our leading passer, obviously. He was also our leading rusher, which isn't exactly a recipe for success. Brock Bowers was barely involved in the game. Amir Abdullah caught one of those touchdowns that made your heart skip a beat either way. Sincere McCormick, that was one of the people, one of the players going into this game, that we were interested to see. Okay, let's see if Sincere McCormick can make some noise here. Injured instantly out for the game. Trey Tucker's a non-factor if Aiden O'Connell isn't under center or anyone that can attempt to throw the ball down the field. Desmond Ritter is somehow worse than Gardner Minshew. And look, this is why I was saying Aiden O'Connell's going to scare a little bit of the anti-tank people, just because even really bad two-interception Aiden O'Connell against the Bucs can move the ball up and down the field. Like, in that drive where Aiden O'Connell threw that pick in the Bucs game, the first one, it was a 10-minute drive that he led before he threw that awful pick. So, really bad Aiden O'Connell is better than really good Desmond Ritter. All that to say, as bad as we were yesterday, which again, I think is the low point of the season. Some people want to say it's the Panthers game. I hard disagree. At least we crossed the 50-yard line before half. I mean, this game was just horrendous to watch. All that to say, it's 15 to 3. Desmond Ritter gets the ball back with, whatever, six minutes to go. And he starts driving, and you go, all right, well, they're improving on defense. Chipping away, chipping away, making throws, making plays. Checks it down to Amir Abdullah, touchdown. Now, if you had the spread for this game, one way or another, first of all, if you're betting on this game, you need to check into a hospital. What is wrong with you? Go get some help. If you had the Raiders to cover, that blocked extra point was significant. And if you had the Falcons to cover, it was also significant. But anyway, they block it. You're like, okay, well, the Falcons are going to get a first down. The Falcons proceed to go three and out. And of course, they're bailed out by a really bad roughing the passer call that even the broadcaster's like, yikes, you can't end the game like that. Okay, well, they got their first down. They go run, run, pass. Kirk Cousins cannot complete a pass. Clock stops with a minute 40 left. And now you start going to tank-a-thon and seeing what would happen if we lose. Sorry, if we win this game. A win would feel like a loss to some people. And you start to realize that if we win this game, we go from having the first or second pick, depending on strength of schedule, to the seventh pick in the NFL draft. Now, the season doesn't end today. If we win this game, if we win next week, and we'll talk about next week and the week after, because they are winnable games, especially with AP saying Aiden's going to come back probably. You start to think, oh my God, the Raiders just put their fans through three and three quarters of the most excruciating, ugly, ridiculous, terrible football you've ever seen. And they're going to come back and win this game and completely and utterly ruin all the progress they've made trying to get a top three pick. And Desmond Ritter makes another great throw. And there's 10 seconds left and the ball's at the 35-ish yard line. And the first Hail Mary goes up and it's knocked down. Two seconds left, Falcons call a timeout. Desmond Ritter rolls out on the field. He rolls to the right this time, throws it up. And I think the ball's in the air for 100 seconds, for days, for weeks, for months. And I oppose this question to the squad that's watching. And I need you to vote in this completely honestly. As a diehard Raider fan, as a Raider hater, as a bystander who just happened to be watching, comment below in the YouTube comment section if you're watching after the fact or voting this poll right now. What was going through your mind during the Hail Mary? Now, I want to say this before I answer this question. I do not root for them to lose. I rationalize it in my head before the game starts. It would probably be better if we lose this game. And then when the game starts, I'm like, you know what? Screw it. Let's win the game. But again, for Antonio Pearce and for that roster to go out there and to put us through that pain and suffering, I want nothing more than that ball to be knocked down and for us to lose that game. Because you don't deserve to win it. If you win a game to ruin the draft status of our team and where we pick, you better go out there and dominate from the beginning like the Chiefs game. Or go back and forth and be competitive. All right, you beat the Chiefs, you were competitive. But to play terrible for three and a half quarters, and the only reason for you to win that game is because of a Hail Mary. In the game, you should not have even thought about winning in terms of how terrible you were. So go out there and almost win it and ruin everything. And that ball was in the air for a while. And when that ball came down, I saw nothing but Jacoby Myers, like the Sistine Chapel. He was going to touch it. Come here, football. Come to my hands. And it was in his hands. It had a little bit of the Russell Wilson Fail Mary Rookie of the Year vibe to it. And everyone pounded in and then the ref interception. And there was a sense of relief that came over my body. I can't lie to you. As someone who does not want to tank, a sense of relief came over my body when that ball was picked off to seal the deal. However, with all that being said, and we will talk about the biggest problems that the Raiders have, and we will talk about the head coach again. With all that being said, I don't know if that team that we just barely lost to is any worse than the Saints or the Jags. Now the Jags won a game with McCorkle Jones and almost won another. And the Saints almost beat the Commanders. No doubt about it. But if Aiden O'Connell comes back and he's able to just kind of put the ball into Brock Bowers and Jacoby Myers' hands. But let me put it this way. If Aiden O'Connell plays in this game, I think we win. Which is scary to think if you're trying to get the best player in this draft. Now I've said before, there have been so many instances of the first quarterback being taken in the draft not being the best one. Right? Jameis Winston, Caleb Williams, Baker Mayfield. It happens. It happens. But you also want to make sure when you're not really playing for anything and when these games really don't matter. And I'm not saying this as the mentality that a player or coach should have. I want them to look like they're winning every game. Although the way Antonio Pierce manages the clock, especially right before half, looks like he's trying to throw something. All that to say, it does us no good to win these games. I'm officially on that train. It does us zero. What good does it do? Does it bring you any joy? The only game that I would maybe consider liking to win is if Derek Carr was playing in the Saints game. But he's not going to, so that's a wash. And if the Chargers, for whatever reason, needed to beat us to make the playoffs. And we were like, you know what? Let's beat them and eliminate them somehow. Although I don't really hate the Chargers. I hate the Broncos and the Chiefs, obviously, much more than the Chargers. The Chargers have always been kind of ant-on. All that to say, it was horrifically scary when the ball was in the air. And I like to see a lot of parody in this pool. There are some people that are saying, please God, catch it. I respect you. And I'm kind of there too. I'm like 60 knocking down, 40 catching. I'm like, I kind of want to see us catch it just for the chaos of it all. And then, of course, there's a little contingency of people, like myself as well, that are thinking, how did my life come to this? That I'm watching every second tick off of this game. Because there was a moment during that game when it was 15 to 3, I was like, I'm not making a YouTube video about this. No chance. Nothing was charging. Nothing was set up. And then Ritter started driving that first touchdown drive down, and I was like, oh no. He's going to score. We're going to get the ball back. And I'm going to need to talk about a Hail Mary. So I started plugging everything in. I didn't have my mic ready. I had to use a different lab mic. All that to say, there is a part of me that thinks, what did we do in a past life to deserve this as Ritter fans? Some of you really have bad karma. But hopefully, it all turns around if we potentially lose two of these last three games and draft a quarterback. Okay. So as I do my best to continue to talk about everything that happened in this game, the defense, again, was, I would say, pretty special, considering the lack of injuries, right? So we don't have anything bad to say about the defense. I did, however, hear Orlovsky and Lewis Riddick, two guys I do like a lot, just kind of a boring broadcast is what it is, discuss the weaponry of this team and the problems behind it. Now, I said, if you don't have a quarterback, nothing matters. And I kind of agree with that, unless you have an elite Pittsburgh Steeler type defense. But as I pose this question to you, right, what is the biggest roster problem, the biggest hole that you think needs to be addressed post 2024-25 NFL season into the off-season? Because we're going to have a lot of draft picks. We got that Jets pick, thank you very much. We're going to have a lot of cap space, $115 million, right? So Tom Telesco is going to have an opportunity to right this ship a little bit. And I understand QB is the main issue. We talk about it, Shador Sanders, Cam Ward, Sam Darnold, right? We know. We know. We need to have a QB. The reason why I have these top three, you know, concerns running back perimeter weapons and offensive line is because they were all discussed on a broadcast yesterday. We have no run game. We have no running back to trust. I don't trust Alexander Madisons, Amir White, Dylan Lowby, Sincere McCormick. I don't trust any of these people. And I wouldn't be surprised if this is what we spend our top dollar on. If Najee's available, just go get him. Don't have to worry about developing someone. We just got a running back that can just jump over people and find the hole. They spent a lot of time talking about our perimeter weaponry. Now, I kind of disagreed with Orlowski and Riddick in terms of, they said they don't have any weapons. They have Brock and that's it. I think Jacobi Myers is a really good number two. I think Michael Mayer is a great backup tight end or second tight end when you're doing 12 personnel. And I think Trey Tucker is an impact player when you have a good quarterback. Look at Tyreek Hill when two O'Donoghue by lower isn't playing. He's a shell of himself. It's not his fault. It's the quarterback's fault. When you are a go ball, a post player, take the top off the defense, hit your head on the goal post, you are not going to impact the game at all when you don't have a good quarterback. So I do think Trey Tucker with another quarterback, we've seen it with Aidan O'Connell, is going to have more success. So I'm not really concerned about the perimeter weapons. I would like to get a true blue number one wideout, but we got Brock Bowers. The offensive line is in flux. I do think a right tackle on center. We're okay. Jordan Meredith and Dylan Parham are kind of upper grabs and I do think Colin Miller is on his last legs figuratively and literally. I think we are in line for a new left tackle. And the last option I have on here is does a QB solve all? And what do I mean by that? The people who voted for this, and I'm not asking you to change your vote, but maybe you didn't quite understand what I was saying because I don't quite disagree that a QB solves everything. My point is, with that option is, if Shador Sanders comes in, right, and he is the franchise guy, are we just competing for the division right off the rip? Now some of you might say yes, and you might even be able to convince me of that. The coaching staff leaves a lot to be desired in its current iteration, although Bill Belichick seems to be wanting to coach Scott Turner to be the UNC offensive coordinator, which is interesting. All of a sudden Scott Turner has become like the guy. He's called the better offense. I don't blame him for having to run whatever he was running yesterday with Desmond Ritter under center. I do not think a quarterback just completely solves all our problems, but it obviously propels us to whatever we're doing this year to seven, eight, and nine wins. You do need to sure up the run game, which I think is the most important thing, because the offensive line, as not great as it's been early in the season, has gotten better. And I do think Gardner Minshew was partially to blame for how bad that line looked. I think he was running into a lot of sacks and not checking the protection where it needs to be. I think Aiden O'Connell did a much better job of that when he started these past few games. Desmond Ritter is kind of yippy back there, so again, the line looks bad when there's a mobile quarterback. And I said this yesterday in my Discord, which you can join Oliver Ritter's Discord. I think a really bad mobile quarterback is worse than a really bad pocket quarterback, because at the least a bad pocket quarterback stays in the pocket and delivers a football. You might not like where it's going, but he's not going to cause any chaos within the pocket. A bad mobile quarterback like Desmond Ritter is like first read, I'm out, sack. So while I do think offensive line can be improved upon, and while I do think a number one wideout should be on the priority list, the running game needs to be fixed, and obviously the quarterback needs to be addressed, and it will be. I don't foresee Gardner Minshew or Desmond Ritter in a Raider uniform next season. Aiden O'Connell might be kept as the backup or emergency third. I mean, he's under contract, and it's a fourth-run rookie deal. It's not exactly $100 million. So I do foresee him being back, although I don't think he's going to be in line to start. I think we're going to either trade for a veteran or sign Sam Darnold and then draft the quarterback with that first pick or somebody in the second round to learn under slash compete with Sam Darnold. And I saw a lot of people, I'll just touch on this real fast, I saw people yesterday in a broadcast saying, if you're Sam Darnold, why would you want to come here? This place stinks. And it's like, well, this version of the Raiders is not going to be the version of the Raiders that Sam Darnold is under. It's going to be a more improved offensive line. There's going to be a new running back there that's going to be better than whatever we have. We're going to either draft or sign a wideout that's going to become that new number one, hopefully. He's going to have Brock Bowers under his second year and Jacobi Myers and a new play caller. I threw out Josh McCown's name a couple weeks ago, who was the quarterback's coach for the Vikings. Maybe he, Josh McCown, and Sam Darnold are a packaged deal that come to us, right? It's not as if Sam Darnold is just going to come here with this exact roster in place. I see Maroon 7-7 say, do you think we're going to lose out? I feel like ASU is back. We won't lose out. I said that early in the broadcast, early in this live stream. I do think there's a chance with Aiden coming back. It's going to be very dicey for the lose out people. I'm now part of that contingent. I wasn't early on in the season. I'm now thinking we should lose, but especially that Saints game, man. The Saints don't have anybody. The Saints don't have anybody. The Jags have a couple weapons. The Saints have nobody. I just worry that Aiden can go out there and watch this. The last thing I want to talk about here before we wrap things up, another five, six minutes in me, is, look, we talk a lot about AP and we talk a lot about Ben Johnson and Vrabel and will they, won't they fire? What are they going to do? Again, the broadcast yesterday said, and I heard Colin Coward say this as well, if the Raiders are looking for a new coach, they should offer everything. They should offer the farm to Mike Vrabel. If I'm Mike Vrabel, I'm not taking that job. I understand it's a dysfunctional organization, but it is an organization with an owner that does not meddle. He hires you and he lets you do your thing. You've got a cornerstone offensive piece in Brock Bowers, a couple of young offensive linemen. You've got a really good defense when completely healthy in Wilkins and Crosby and Kuntz and Epps and Merrick and Hobbs and Bennett and Jack Jones and Spillane. And I think the most enticing thing to a new potential head coach is the ability to potentially pick the next quarterback and have the first pick in the draft. So the question that I pose to the jury here is this, and I want you to be honest. Do not be a biased Raider fan. How appealing is the Raiders head coaching job to somebody that wants to become a head coach in the National Football League? And let's talk about the potential openings. You're going to have Jacksonville. You're going to have us. You've got Chicago. Who else can you throw out there? We are iffy on the Dallas Cowboys. The New York Jets is an option. A couple probably surprise fires in there as well. Please list some if I'm forgetting any. The Giants maybe. I do think of all those teams listed You know, I would say the Cowboys have the best quarterback in Dak Prescott. We'll see what happens with Zach Taylor in the Bengals. I don't foresee him getting fired, and I think that would be a big-time mistake for the Bengals to coach in a Super Bowl. Obviously, if Joe Burrow is available, that's the best option. Know that about it. But other than the Cowboys, I think it would be between the Raiders and the Bears for the second best option to come in and resurrect a coaching career or start one. If you're Ben Johnson, the opportunity and prospect of cooking up plays for Jacobi Myers, Brock Bowers, maybe a Tee Higgins, and the idea that you get to pick your quarterback, Shador Sanders, Cam Moore, Jalen Milrow, Sam Darnold, and this is your ship for better or for worse, I think that could be pretty enticing to a Ben Johnson, to a Rabel, to an Ethan Cohen from the Bucs. I think the Raiders' job isn't as bad as a lot of people want to say. I do think there's stink on it from an organizational standpoint. However, I do think that the roster that's in place is better than the 2-11 record when you swap out the quarterback, which is going to be an inevitability. Shador Sanders or Cam Ward cannot be worse than Gardner Minshew or Desmond Rutter. It just cannot be worse, right? Ben Johnson and Rabel, I mean, I would love that, but that's never going to happen. They're both going to get jobs. Now, I'm not saying that Antonio Pierce is going to get fired, although Mark Davis didn't give him the most glowing endorsement. I do think Tom Telesco is going to take or keep his job, and I think Brady's going to have a big say in who is that next head coach, whether that is AP again. I saw some people say, well, are we sure Mark Davis wants to fire another coach and pay three coaches that aren't there anymore in Gruden, McDaniels, and Antonio Pierce? Well, it's come out, basically confirmed, that Antonio Pierce's contract was only two years. So going into next season, Mark Davis will only have to pay him one more year's worth of a contract before he's completely off the books. Mark Davis will still be paying Josh McDaniels and John Gruden well after Antonio Pierce is already off the books of the Las Vegas Raiders and Mark Davis. So if Tom Brady and Tom Telesco and Mark Davis as a trifecta think Rabel or Ben Johnson is better than Pierce, they're going to buy him out. It's not a big-time contract. It's a two-year deal. There are rumors that came out that Cliff Kingsbury wanted a three-year deal, and they couldn't do that for whatever reason, and he walked. Why wouldn't you give him three years? Well, because you don't give your offensive coordinator more years than your head coach. So if AAP only has two years, that's the reason why Cliff Kingsbury left and only was off for two years. And that's the reason why I do think Mark Davis will fire him if he wants to. It's not going to be a financial thing. Mark Davis has made so much money moving the team from Oakland to Las Vegas. We are now not one of the most poor franchises. We are one of the richest. Doesn't feel like that, but it's the facts of the National Football League with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2024. So I do think probably middle of the road is the right call here. I don't think the broadcast was giving enough credit or Calvert was giving enough credit to the roster that's in place with the Raiders. It's rare that you can take over a team that has maybe the first pick in the draft that also has perennial pro bowlers like Brock Bowers, Christian Wilkins, and Max Crosby. And I do think we are quarterback and a good offseason free agency acquisition period away from becoming the Houston Texans in terms of the flip. But that's all one big if you hit on the quarterback, which is why I think Sam Darnold is a viable option. Do you want to risk all of this on a rookie or do you want to let the rookie learn under Sam Darnold? I've also thrown out there trading for Matthew Stafford. If you don't have to give up a first, I would do that in a heartbeat. People call me crazy for saying that. You just never know in this league. If the Rams don't make the playoffs or they're one and done, they're going to hit the reset button. You're not going to get a first for 37 or 38-year-old Matthew Stafford. It might be a second and a third, or maybe a second this year, a first next year. I would do that in an absolute heartbeat. Let Shador Sanders learn under Stafford. Stafford takes us to the playoffs for one season, swan song, Hall of Fame career. Then Shador Sanders steps in. I'm just putting that out the ether. Maybe Tom Brady watches Bleacher Report in his free time, hears that and goes, hey, Tom, let's go. This kid has got something. We should hire him. Well, now I apologize. I shouldn't be asking the Raiders to give me a job while I'm doing a job for a company that I love in Bleacher Report and a platform I love in YouTube. I think that's all I got for today. Thank you guys so much for watching this. Whether you're watching on Bleacher Report, make sure you're leaving comments on this stream after the fact. Whether you're watching on YouTube after the fact, make sure you're hitting that subscribe button. We just hit 11,000. We're trying to get to 12. We're so close to doing that. Thank you so much for watching. I'll be back next week, Monday, 5 p.m. Eastern. I love you guys. I'll see you next time.