Oakland Raiders: The good, bad, and ugly in preseason win over the Packers

Ugly: Penalties

How much more can we write about Oakland’s troubles with the little yellow flags? It’s been a running theme for time out of mind at this point.

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The Landry Hat

Traditionally, the Raiders are at or near the top of the “leaderboard” in the dubious category of most penalized teams in the league. And while some argue conspiracy, that the league has it out for them, and calls penalties unfairly – and sometimes, it seems they do – the reality of the situation is that, for whatever reason, year in and year out, the team continues making stupid mistakes and having mental lapses.

How many times have we seen Oakland make an unforced mental error – say, a false start – that swings the momentum that had been building. Or, just flat out kill a promising drive? If you answered, “far too many times,” to that question, you would be absolutely correct.

Gruden thrives on discipline, and yet, through three games, he has yet to be able to instill that discipline in a team that needs it. Badly.

Against the Packers, the Raiders were flagged 10 times for 100 yards. If there’s one saving grace, it’s that the Packers were flagged 13 times for 110 yards. But still, to give up 100 yards worth of field position is mind boggling.

Overall, that brings Oakland’s preseason totals to, 29 penalties for 276 yards. If you average it all out, and project that over the coming season, the Raiders would rack up about 160 penalties, giving up a total of 1,472 yards worth of field position.

Those numbers are mind-boggling. And something that absolutely, cannot happen. This team cannot afford to give up that kind of field position, week in and week out, and expect to win.

This team needs some of Gruden’s trademark discipline. They need to stop shooting themselves in the foot, and putting themselves in bad positions. And they need to figure out how to do that quickly.