Oakland Raiders Must Play To Win, Not Like They’re Afraid To Lose

The Oakland Raiders tantalized us all last season with a high-powered offense and a devil-may-care attitude – both things, that seem to be missing in 2017.

Last season, the Oakland Raiders reclaimed a swagger that had been missing from the franchise for a long, long time. That swagger, fueled not just by solid play, but by a coach who seemed to have a penchant for rolling and taking some chances, propelled the team to a 12-4 record and its first playoff appearance since Nickleback had a number one hit and wasn’t only a punchline.

Coming into the year, a sexy pick to make a deep playoff run, and possibly even de-throne the reigning NFL Champion Patriots, the Raiders have looked flat and uninspired in three consecutive defeats to Washington, Denver, and Baltimore.

The play calling has been suspect and the execution at some points, has been downright awful. These 2017 Raiders, through five weeks of the year, look nothing like the high-flying team that set the league on fire.

Simply put, last season, the Raiders played like a team with nothing to lose – and it led them to a tremendous amount of success. This year, the Raiders look like a team beginning to buckle beneath the weight of tremendous expectations.

Put another way, the 2017 version of the Oakland Raiders look like a team playing without the edge and confidence that helped carry them through a dozen wins last year.

Perhaps, no play sums up the idea that the Raiders are not playing to win, but playing in the hopes they don’t lose — and that they’re playing completely without the confidence and swagger that was a hallmark of the 2016 season — better than what transpired late in the fourth quarter against Baltimore.

Down by 10 points with just over eight minutes left in the game and facing a critical fourth and three from the Baltimore 44-yard line, Black Jack Del Rio, the man who made gambling fun and exciting last year, went conservative – and punted.

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The punt wound up being a touchback and Baltimore chewed up most of what remained on the clock before kicking a field goal that provided the final 30-17 margin.

No, the punt in and of itself didn’t cost the Raiders that game. A whole lot went wrong prior to that. What it illustrates though, is that Del Rio has lost faith in his players – and as a result, the team has lost faith in itself.

They’ve lost that edge and swagger they had last year.

Rather than roll the dice, Del Rio tucked his head back into his shell, crossed his fingers, and hoped for the best. Instead of letting his offense try to make a play, he gave the ball to a defense that had been pushed around and bullied all day long. Making the resulting Ravens drive pretty predictable.

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Just imagine what could have happened had Del Rio elected to roll the dice. What if the Raiders had picked up that critical first down and kept the drive alive? What if they’d wound up punching one in to close the gap to 27-24?

Might that not have fired this team up? Might that not have ignited a team that had been pretty stagnant, punchless, and passionless all game? After Baltimore went up 14-0 early in the first quarter, any air this Raiders squad had when the game started, was sucked right out of them.

Couldn’t clawing their way back to within a field goal, with the talent and big play ability they have on that roster, have inspired and motivated this team to bear down and dig deeper?

Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll never know because Del Rio, so famous for being so daring last season – something that endeared him to fans – seemed to develop a case of the yips and punted the ball away.

It seems to be a stark change of mindset – a coach who famously went for two to win rather than kick a PAT to send a game against the Saints to overtime last year, suddenly doesn’t trust his offensive stars with the ball in crunch time?

And Carr, for his part in the four games he’s played – whether it be the play calls coming in, or he’s just checking down too early – isn’t the same quarterback he was last year. He’s been far more cautious and way less Favre-esque this year.

Now, in his fourth season, Carr has developed a reputation as a bit of a Brett Favre – esque gunslinger. And given that he threw 50 passes for more than 20 yards last season (53 in 2015), and another eight for more than 40 yards (10 in 2015), it’s easy to see why – those numbers put him up among the league leaders.

But through four games so far this year, Carr has thrown a total of ten passes 20 yards or longer. Ten. And only one 40 yards or more. That’s even behind Alex Smith, for crying out loud. This year, you have to scroll way down the list to find Carr’s name – he’s twenty-seventh in passes of 20 yards or more.

The length of passes isn’t necessarily indicative of solid quarterback play, obviously. But it does show a shift in the mentality of either Del Rio, Carr, or new OC Todd Downing. It shows a conservative streak that hasn’t been present in Carr’s first three seasons in the league.

Most everybody thought that Bill Musgrave was the problem – and this isn’t to say his conservative nature wasn’t a problem. But the conventional wisdom held that without Musgrave’s influence, without his oftentimes vanilla, predictable calls, as well as greater freedom for Carr to create at the line under Downing, he and the offense would soar to new heights.

Instead, it’s mired in a mud deeper and thicker than when Musgrave was at the helm. The offense that was supposed to be absolutely electric this season, was supposed to be one of the league’s elite units, is currently averaging just 279 yards a game – 189 yards passing and 90 yards rushing.

Which is good for thirtieth-best offense in the league, if you’re scoring at home.

The good news is that we’re only entering week six and there is still a lot of football yet to be played. They still have time to turn this foundering ship around. But they’ve got a lot of work to do and a lot of ground to make up.

Which means they are going to have to somehow, someway, find that confidence and swagger that marked their 2016 season. They’re going to have to start rolling the dice and taking some chances. They can’t afford to continue playing the passionless, uninspired football that’s been a staple of the last three games.

This team has got to find a way to get back to playing to win – not playing like they’re afraid to lose.