New front office, new coaching staff, new players; same old Las Vegas Raiders.
The Raiders headed into Week 3 with a good chance at getting back on track, facing a Washington Commanders team that was missing its starting quarterback. However, Las Vegas wasn’t ready to play from he jump, allowing Deebo Samuel to return the opening kickoff 69 yards to set up Washington’s first touchdown of the game. The Commanders and Marcus Mariota never looked back from there, holding the lead for just about the entire contest and winning convincingly by three possessions: 41-24.
Naturally, that’s led to plenty of criticism about the coaching staff. Head coach Pete Carroll shoulders the majority of the blame, and Pete’s son, Brennan, is feeling the heat from the fanbase as the offensive line coach. The Raiders have been dominated in the trenches so far this season, including in Week 3, as the unit continues to struggle to block for Ashton Jeanty and Geno Smith was sacked five times.
Thus, social media/the internet hasn’t been kind to the Carrolls.
Another questionable coaching decision was starting Alex Cappa over a healthy Jackson Powers-Johnson. Pete Carroll explained that it was for “continuity”.
Smith wasn’t the biggest problem on Sunday, but he wasn’t part of the solution and was also the brunt of jokes online.
Pretty accurate:
The Chicago Bears’ offensive line is bad, too, so who will be worse next week?
Is Maxx Crosby going to put up with this for much longer? He was one of the few players who showed up today.
With ticket prices in Las Vegas as high as they are, Raider Nation isn’t going to put up with this for much longer, and they shouldn’t.