Oakland Raiders: Top 5 takeaways from Week 2 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs

5. Jon Gruden may not be the advertised offensive maestro

It’s still true that Derek Carr is the Raider who will be on the chopping block this offseason — deservingly or not. But there will continue to be speculation as to just how qualified Jon Gruden is as a head coach.

The first quarter of Sunday’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs probably couldn’t have gone much better than it did.

The gameplan was excellent on both ends. The defense was able to limit Mahomes out of the gate, and it seemed to be more the effort of the defense than anything having to do with Mahomes or the Kansas City play-calling.

On the offensive end, the Raiders continued relying on a healthy mix of options that made for some impressive drives early on.

But, in truth, the difference between good coaching and great coaching is found in the adjustments from one quarter to the next.

Andy Reid and his coaching staff adjusted to whatever early game-plan the Raiders decided to enforce in the first quarter. And the adjustment, or perceived adjustment, didn’t seem to come at all in the second quarter.

Much of this can be blamed on personnel, sure; there are still going to be growing pains with the Raider defense even if the defense has been overhauled from one season to the next.

But the offensive game-planning has to be better.

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Gruden’s calling card — and the entire reason he was given his hefty contract — was to orchestrate an offense that, at best, was imposing, and, at worst, was respected.

That’s not how it looked.

Again, personnel can be to blame, to some extent. Carr definitely didn’t have his best showing. But the lack of confidence emanating from Carr is reflective of the coaching staff’s confidence in him. It’s a two-way street.

There still seems to be a lack of chemistry between Carr’s leadership and the leadership of Gruden. It’s led to miscues like the interception in the endzone that essentially iced the game with almost an entire half to go.

But it wasn’t just the players who began to mail it in.

Gruden seemed intent on playing it passively, even when down by three scores. In those situations, screens for a handful of yards aren’t going to work. They didn’t work.

The emphasis has been on the players to “buy-in” to Jon Gruden and his culture. But the reality is that Gruden might have to “buy-in” to his own quarterback.

The symbiosis between head coach and quarterback may never come to be between Gruden and Carr. It may take Gruden finally getting to make his own picks for every player on the team before we see that kind of connection.

But if success is to be had by this current incarnation of the Raiders, then the coordinators need to be as invested and as diligent as they want their players to be.