DETAILED BREAKDOWN Of The Raiders *Terrible Loss* To The Chargers

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, another Monday on Bleacher Report. How is everybody doing? If you don't know, my name is Rodney. And if you do know that, thank you so much for coming back and watch another stream here on Bleacher Report. Today, we're going to talk about, uh, whatever that was yesterday. I think there was a gameplay between the Chargers and the Raiders. I tried my best to forget it, but here we are talking about it. Um, I'm going to wait a little bit here to get some people rocking and rolling in the chat. I want to see if you're in there. Let me know where you're watching from. What time is it where you're watching from right now on the, on the West coast? For me, it's 11, but I know we're 1 p.m. Eastern every Monday in the month of September, rocking and rolling, recapping these games. Um, and look, initially right off the bat, um, we're going to get into all the talking points. I've got, I've got people to blame. I've got positives. I've got negatives. Does this mean the season's already over before week two has even begun? Because if you're a Raider fan, you know, our next game is against the Baltimore Ravens. And if you close your eyes and imagine either us or the Ravens, 0-2 to start the season, who do you see? I think we all see the same team, but Ooh, Brazil, 2 p.m. in Brazil. You just got, Hey, there was just a game in Sao Paulo. It was a big hit. Did you go to that game? Raider Andre? That's awesome. Brazil. That's crazy. Um, but yeah, so let's get right into it. And before I start anything, I need to go vibe check right off the bat. So we're going to start a poll here. We're going to pin it and we're going to see how Raider Nation is feeling after the first week. We've got three options here. We've got the Aaron Rodgers, the RELAX, right? It's just one week. Doesn't matter. We're slight cause for concern, but we're still, you know, we're, we're rocking and rolling, but it's not great. And then we got this guy's fawn. I will get into, um, exactly how I feel about it. But if we go quarter by quarter, um, starting off and it was tough to find out a couple of days before the game started for the Raiders that Malcolm Koontz, which is one of their premier edge rushers who really came on last season had like eight sacks when Antonio Pierce took over. Uh, he was out with an injury a couple of days before the game. And when Antonio Pierce announced that it did not seem like he was particularly happy about it. And understandably so, but we were ready to roll because we had Tyree Wilson and Tyree Wilson. He kind of came on a little bit toward the end of last season. The season prior, no, he didn't have an off season. He was injured a lot. He did not play like a first round top 10 pick, um, would be expected to play. And we thought this was the time for him to come in here for Malcolm Koontz solidify himself on the edge, next to Wilkins and on the opposite side of Max Crosby. And he got hurt like three plays in to the point where I was like, is Tyree Wilson not even starting? And he got hurt. So immediately for a defense that we thought was going to be top 10 top five, we were down two of our three premier quote unquote edge rushers. Um, and I already see Ray saying we need a quarterback. I already see Mike saying it was good to mention through to no one. Oh, we'll get to the backward pass, the backward forward pass, the tuck rule, the end bell tuck rules. Malcolm Koontz was out to start the game. So right off the bat, it was not great. Okay. But as the game started, right? The defense kind of had their way with the chargers. We were flying around. We were hitting people the second they were catching the football. There was pressure. Max Crosby hit Herbert a few times, even before he sacked them. Eventually Christian Wilkins was as advertised, right? And we'll get into all the specifics of it soon. But early on the defense was rocking and rolling. The offense gets the ball, quick strike to Jacoby Myers, second and one, third and one, fourth and one. And that was a theme for the Raiders not being able to get one yard when they absolutely needed to get one yard. That was one drive that stall because we couldn't get one yard. A few drives later we went for it on a questionable decision by AP. I have a theory about that that I'll get into in a second. And then the fourth and one to end up with the one that we put on. We will talk about all that right now. I see some people in the chat. What are we absolutely talking about in here? We need a lot more than just a QB. We need no C. We'll talk about Luke Getzey. We need to add more depth to the offensive line. Fourth and one, you got to go for it. I see Beto Vida. I said, right. It's obvious AP has more confidence in the D than the O. Zamir lost his job. Yeah. I mean, look, we got takes, we got takes. Okay. Raider Rods is back to eight. We'll see. Only time will tell. But if we check out the box score here, let me pull up the box score because this is very interesting. And by the way, this game ended up being 22 to 10. The Chargers scored late to kind of make it look like it was a little bit more of a commanding win than they actually had. Although I said when I was predicting this game, I said the Raiders are going to win this game, lose to the Chargers week 18. Maybe we flip flop them. Maybe we're just not as good as I thought. And that's a possibility as well. I said that this game would be close and there was going to be a team at the end of the game that was going to score a touchdown to make it look like a bigger gap than it actually was. I thought it was going to be us, the Raiders. Instead it ended up being the, not the San Diego Chargers, the Los Angeles Chargers. But if we take a look here at the box score, which is a very, very interesting, wow, they ended up with 176 rushing yards and for three quarters, they did absolutely nothing. But the problem is when the defense is on the field as much as they are, you're going to get worn down. Neither team was particularly good on third down. The Chargers were 4-15. We were 5-14. We only had two penalties for 15 yards. Harbaugh's team, 7-50, not great. And the most frustrating thing about this, right, before I get into, you know, who's to blame because that's really what we want to talk about, right? And I see the poll right now that's up. Most of the people are saying slight cause for concern. Some people saying relax. Not one person is saying the sky is falling, which is not what I saw after the game ended. There was a lot of doomsday preppers, a lot of doom and gloom. And I see you guys going in the chat to pop up on the screen. I will answer some of these questions in a second. But the frustrating thing is when you watch this game and look, we know, we kind of have to play perfect football. We got to win the games we're supposed to win to get into the playoffs, right? We played like the better team for 60 to 70% of this game. What it comes down to are the fumbles loss and the interceptions, throwing the turnovers. And if you want to throw in the fourth down that we went for that we didn't get, we had four turnovers in this game, two of the chargers, zero. That's not going to get it done when Gardner Minshew is your quarterback. You cannot turn the ball over and not in return, steal some possessions from the other team. And as amazing as our defense was yesterday for most of the game, again, I don't blame them for this loss. Absolutely not. They did all they could. Herbert had an average game at best. As good as our defense is, we cannot continue to ask them to bail us out. And I mentioned, you know, on my YouTube channel, which is all of our writers. If you want to check that out after this, I mentioned that we're going to have to Pittsburgh Steelers some games this year, we're going to have to win some games that look pretty ugly. And what did the Steelers do? They won a game against the Falcons where they kicked six field goals. This was one of those games that we needed to muddy up and make a play at the end. And we just didn't. And the box score shows you who had the ball more. We did. We had the ball 31 minutes and mustered all but 10 points. And that's with a Daniel Carlson missed field goal. That is not going to get it done. And I think now is time as I end the poll here, get your final votes in, get your final votes in for this poll. As I start a new one because we're going to be talking about who to blame. I see build us like the Ravens in 2000. I don't hate that. I see donuts Duncan. It's hard to say the OC was a problem. Gardner's play. I see turnovers and worked on, killed us, eliminate them. We win the game. Mark's haircut is the blame. It's not a great haircut for being honest. Um, but yeah, so we're going to get into who's the blame right now. I'm going to stop this poll and we'll start the next one. And I want to see the comments in the section below. Who do you guys blame for this loss? Cause I have, I have a pecking order. I think it's not just one person. Um, and to me it absolutely starts with Antonio Pierce. He look, I believe Antonio Pierce is a master motivator and go ahead and comment in that poll. Oh, the polls flying fast and furious. Oh, we got, we got, we got takes. Antonio Pierce is a master motivator. There's no denying that. Last year when he took over, he made some questionable fourth down decisions and he made some questionable, uh, timeout calls, some spotty clock management. And I thought that this year he was going to learn from his mistakes and he was going to lean on Marvin Lewis and Joe Philbin and the guys that have done it before and really start to make strides as a cerebral coach. And he goes for it on fourth and one inside our own 50. My theory on that, maybe, maybe it's wishful thinking, but this is also bad. That was the Trey Tucker screen that we all thought was a first down. And I was wondering if maybe he just thought it was a first down, ran the ball. We got stuff and they're like, wait a second. It was actually fourth down. The reason why I need to believe that that's what happened is because you just don't go for it then, especially with how good your defense is playing early. You do not go for that. That gave them three points easy. Towards the end of the game, there was a decision where he decided to make the field goal instead of going for it. And I think that was the right call because toward the end of the game, the points are at a premium. And when you have a chance to score points and make it a one possession game with your defense still having a chance to force three and now you kick the field goal. And Antonio Pierce was right to do that because we kicked the field goal, cut it to six. Chargers got the ball back three and out. We get the ball. We go down the field ends up being a fourth and one on the Chargers 43. And I know you guys have seen the stat. Nobody in that position down the amount of points we were down in the last nine years have punted the football in that situation. And you cannot expect a defense who has been working their tail off all game that just gave you a three and out to do it again. Especially when if you go for it and don't get it, the ball's at the 43 yard line. If you punt and they get the ball at the 15 yard line in two plays, they're at the same spot they would have been if you had gone for it and didn't get it. And I hear you. We went for it a couple of times or at least once and got stuff. There were multiple times where we needed one yard stuff. Guess what? Go to Luke Getzey and say, dial something up here. Okay? Because right now leading the poll AP is to blame, but Luke Getzey is coming in at a close second. Here's my take on Getzey. And to be honest with you, I've seen a lot of people throwing shade at Luke Getzey. I do not think Luke Getzey is to blame for this game at all. I think when you have second and third and one and you run it up the middle with a bruising running back and a supposedly very good offensive line, you should expect to get one yard. Luke Getzey cannot go out there and block for Zamir White. He cannot tell him to hold the football better. He cannot tell the receivers to run better routes. I don't remember a play call that I saw that I thought, Oh, bad time for that play call Luke Getzey. I do not think this game is on him at all. I gotta be honest with you. I loved the pre-snap movement and a lot of the route concepts and designs. And anytime Gardner Minju had time to throw the football and tried to extend the ball down the field, people were running wide open. We saw, and again, this is why the game is so frustrating. We saw the likes of Devante Jacoby, Brock Bowers, Trey Tucker and Michael Mayer in the past game, making plays with nobody in sight because we have very good skill people. And because Luke Getzey, in my humble opinion, was dialing it up, especially when you have no running game, he had to find a way to manufacture plays that would, you know, get these people open. And when you don't have any running game, it's harder to call these plays. So Luke Getzey, he's nowhere near my blame radar for this game at all. To me, it starts with AP and then it goes down to the offensive line. The offensive line is lasting this ball right now. And before I get into the offensive line, we got a Raider uncle saying Minshew is not the answer. AOC will win more games. We'll talk about it in a second here. Luke Getzey sucked at Chicago. He's going to suck in Las Vegas. That's poor discipline. We could have had the Chargers coast, but we chose AP. I mean, yeah, I get it guys. I know it's frustrating. It is. It is. I was in a dark place yesterday. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie to you. But now moving on to the offensive line. And here's where I kind of want to pump the brakes on the doom and gloom, because the offensive line was not good yesterday in the first half. We let up four sacks and it's funny. I was told that Minshew's starting because he's mobile and because he protects the football and he got sacked four times and he turned the ball over twice. But we'll get to Minshew in a second. The offensive line was not good. Colton Miller, that whole left side and Andre James, they were getting bullied pretty badly in the first half of the football game to the point where we could not establish any run. And that's not a recipe for success with any quarterback that is in top five. You need a run game in the National Football League. That's how you control the clock, time of possession, flip the field, win the game. You run the football. I do not blame it on Zamir White. Where was he supposed to go? The holes were not there until the second half. And of course, right when the hole started opening up is when he fumbled, because that's just what happens with the Raiders, right? The offensive line was not good, but here's where I say pump the brakes slightly. Colton Miller, the whole off season was in a hoodie up until a week or two ago. He was not able to play competitive football and I think he was a little rusty. Jackson Powers Johnson, who is presumably going to be the starting left guard moving forward did not play in this game. He was not ready to play because again, he was hurt in the off season. So our whole left side, which is arguably the most important side of an offensive line, unless you play for the Miami Dolphins, was not ready to play this game. Partially I'm going to choose to believe because they were a little bit rusty. So while I do believe AP is to blame and the offensive line is second to blame, I think it's more on AP because he didn't have these guys ready to play. They were not executing the way they should have. And at the end of the game, there's like this weird brawl that's happening with captains of your football team, like Max Crosby, like throwing punches. That's absolutely ridiculous. I don't care how raw raw you got to be. If you're down 15 points or whatever, if you're down 12, get off the field, stop fighting. Max Crosby should be in there pulling people off the pile and saying, be smart. Don't get suspended for this next game, which is a crucial game. That was embarrassing. And that's on AP, that's on the coaching staff to nip that in the bud right now. We're not brawlers. We're football players. Let's talk about Gardner Minshew, who was third in this poll right now. I thought Gardner Minshew was slightly better than I thought he would be in terms of being an accurate passer. But then he did what Gardner does. He threw a ball straight backwards to nobody. Which was recovered by Kalil Mack. And in that moment in the game, we were driving down the field to go up 14 to three, 10 to three minimum, get the ball at half. If you go down there and kick a field goal or score a touchdown, get the ball at half, all the momentum's on your side. This is a completely different Monday recap. But instead he drops back, goes to throw to somebody, pulls it back. It was a pass, but it was a backward pass and it's a fumble. And here's the thing. Yes, forward, backward pass. I mean, here's the thing. I don't think Gardner Minshew was the reason we lost this game and that play in itself wasn't the reason we lost this game. But every single Raider fan, I shouldn't say every, most Raider fans who watch what happened in OTAs and in training camp and in the preseason, and comment in the chat below if I'm wrong, most Raider fans said Aiden O'Connell is the better quarterback. Aiden O'Connell, I'm going to close the poll right now. Aiden O'Connell played better in the preseason and in practice. And when Antonio Pierce named Gardner the starter, we were a little shell shocked, right? And it took a little bit for us to understand the thought process. And the thought process was we'll play it. Well, we're playing the likes of Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa, the Ravens who have a great line and then a week for the Browns, right? And AP talks in quarters. So these first four games, we're going to go with the experience, the guy who doesn't turn the ball over and we're going to go with the mobility. When the line breaks down, Gardner's going to run around, right? He got sacked four times and turned the ball over twice. So if the reason we're starting Minshew is because of his mobility and because he protects the football and he's getting sacked, I think he scrambled for maybe one first down, maybe one. And he's turning the ball over. Why is he starting if he's not the more accurate passer? That's my issue with starting Gardner Minshew. And I have a poll here. Is it time for Aiden O'Connell after one game? I think that's a bit of an overreaction. I do not think, again, I just want to make this crystal clear. I thought Minshew for the most part played okay. He distributed the football. He didn't really take any shots down the field, but we didn't watch the film. So we don't know, right? If there were plays to be had down the field, but you can't deny that they went with the experience and the ball security. And that didn't show itself. That was not on display for Gardner Minshew. And look, they're not going to quarterback change. They're going to roll with Minshew. Like I said, for the first four games, unless we start out on three, if they lose to the Panthers, they're done. Minshew's done. I think if we're one and three, we're O and four, Aiden's the guy for the rest of the year. If not, if we're two and two, maybe you give Minshew another four games. I just think the problem right now is you just need someone who's maybe going to take a couple more chances and stress the ball down the field. I don't want to overreact to one game. And I see that most people are not overreacting either. We're saying give Minshew some more time. I see people in the chat too. And then Alex says, O'Connell has more upside. I feel like he would have carried the energy into the season. I don't disagree. I think we know what Minshew is. And I think Aiden O'Connell is still the great unknown. He makes some bad plays and he's a quote unquote statue, right? But he's an extremely accurate passer for a fourth round rookie last year who didn't even get a chance to play a full 17 game schedule. And I think, look, you know, we're favored or we're, excuse me, we're not favored. We are underdogs next week going into Baltimore nine and a half. And like I said, when the stream started, if you close your eyes and you imagine either the Raiders 0-2 or the Ravens 0-2, what do you see? Now open your eyes. You probably see the logo behind me. I do not still think we need to panic if we go 0-2 against Baltimore because then we have easy, winnable games, easy quote unquote, shouldn't say easy, winnable games against the Panthers and the Browns. So I think you give Minshew, if we lose next week, that's all right. They're the better team. It's about how we are perceived. Is it competitive? Are we physical? Are we executing? We're just turning the ball over at will with a veteran quarterback. Get him out of there. But again, it's not doom and gloom yet. Okay. It's only one game. So let's talk about the positives as we run this poll a little bit longer. Christian Wilkins was as advertised. The defense was phenomenal. Jack Jones and Jacory and Bennett looked like they got the corners locked up. Nate Hobbs is flying around, making plays. Tony Romo said Epps and Merrick is one of the best safety duos in the league. And Tony Romo also said during the broadcast, you're going to have a hard time going up and down the field against this team. It just is what it is. Our defense is our strong suit. And they were even better than I thought, to be honest with you. Save for one big JK Dobbins run or two, I guess. Right. I think our defense was phenomenal and that's why it makes it all the more frustrating. And that's why I think if Minshew doesn't create some spark, you got to go back to Aiden. And maybe this is why they went with Minshew. Because if you go from Aiden to Minshew, it's like, but if you go from Minshew to Aiden, it's like, Oh, the defense was as advertised. The weaponry, Devante, Jacobi, Trey Tucker, the wideouts looked great too. Trey Tucker made some nice catches. We spread the ball around when we were able to extend the play and move the ball down the field. But Brock Bowers was absolutely phenomenal. And I'm going to pull up his stats right here because I don't have them, but I want to hear what your guys' take is on Brock Bowers because he already looked like a little Travis Kelsey running around. He had six receptions for 58 yards, a long of 26, 9.7. He looked like a slimmer Travis Kelsey. And I saw, I believe, either Tony Romo said in the broadcast or somebody wrote it, but Romo said, if Brock Bowers is in Raiders practice and he's wearing a running back number and you said, point out the one who's not running back, you wouldn't be able to tell. If he was wearing a different wide receiver number and you put it with the wide receivers, you said, point out the one who's not wide receiver, you wouldn't be able to tell. He was getting open. He was making people miss. He was, Real Nation says Bowers caught everything thrown his way. Bowers didn't look like a rookie. Yeah. I mean Brock Bowers would be an absolute godsend if he grew up a Niners fan. Yeah. So look, Bowers is great. Is it okay for Bowers to be great if it means we didn't trade up to get a quarterback, right? Because right now maybe this was Michael Penick's time, but instead we have Brock Bowers. And you know, there was talk of if we're 0-5, if we're 2-6, why would Devontae stay on this team? And I agree. They might trade Devontae if this, if this falls off, right? If the wheels fall off. However, I do believe that Brock Bowers is Devontae's replacement. And Trey Tucker could be that, you know, Tyreek Hill. And you could have your Hill and your Kelsey. But yeah, I'm going to close this poll right now. Is it time for a quarterback change? 67% of people say it is not. Can I do all three of these polls? Okay. It doesn't matter. But yeah, overall it was not great. Looking ahead to week two, it's the Baltimore Ravens and we saw their offensive line be pretty suspect. We actually have some pretty good history against Lamar Jackson. Beat them a couple of years ago, week one. I want to see the comments below. What is our record after four games? And that's what we'll end this with. What is our record after four games? Because right now the optimistic side of me wants to say two and two, lose next week, win the next two. The Browns did not look good, but maybe that's just one of these week one things. And let's all remember this. Let's all remember this, right? When you're panicking about how bad the Raiders were and they were bad offensively, no doubt about it. The Patriots beat the Mangals in Cincinnati. Week ones are always strange. This time last year, we had beaten the Broncos in Sean Payton's debut. Jimmy Garoppolo scrambled for a first down to win the game, right? We were going to Buffalo. We were up seven, nothing in Buffalo. And it felt like, Oh my God, Josh from Daniels coach of the year, Max Crosby, DPOI, we're going undefeated. Get blown out in that game. Only time will tell if this is who we are or if we can bounce back from this. Right? It's one game at the end of the day. And people in the chat are saying, Oh, and four, two and two, Oh and four from Montgomery. Raider Andre one and three, Paul one and three. I love the Raiders from going one and three, two and two from DeMarion, two and two, but hopefully three in a run. I hope I'm sorry. I mean, look, yeah. Only time will tell. Right? But I'll leave you with this. We've been through more adversity than one bad game. Think about last year, Jimmy Garoppolo, Ryan Hoyer, Aiden O'Connell, Bo Hardigree, McDaniel Ziegler gone champ Kelly AP in one bad game. And we play like the better team for most of it, but it's frustrating. It's frustrating when you feel like you should have won that game. So only time will tell. I will be back here next Monday, one week from right now, same time, 1 PM Eastern to discuss, hopefully a win, but it doesn't feel like it right now. If you like what you see here, go to YouTube, type in all aboard Raiders, A L L A B O R D E Raiders. I'm on there talking about videos or talking, talking about videos, talking about the Raiders. We've got a YouTube channel on there. We're trying to get the 10,000 subscribers. We're at 8,500. Follow me here. I'm Bleach Report to get updates from when I go live. Thank you. Bleach Report so much for having me again. Thank you guys so much for watching. Oh, we got Mark McBride. Team improvement schedule isn't easy. Other teams have to improve too. Yeah, no doubt about it. Uh, of course. See you guys. Love you. And I'll see you next time.