The Oakland Raiders are still winless after an embarrassing 38-14 loss to the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday. The Raiders must have thought they only needed to play one quarter as they led 7-3 after the first 15 minutes, only to be outscored 21-0 in the second quarter. Oakland is the only team this year not to have scored any points in the second. Miami outscored Oakland 14-0 in the third quarter before putting in their backups including quarterback Matt Moore and giving up Oakland’s final score in garbage time.
The game wasn’t as close as the stats would indicate. The most telling stat again is rush yards for and against. Miami rushed for 157 yards with an average of 4.5 yards per rush, to the Raiders 53 total yards rushing at a paltry 2.9 yards per. It looks even worse when you see that the Dolphins top two running backs were a combined 17 rushes for 99 yards, an average of almost six yards per carry. They also accounted for two of Miami’s five touchdowns.
Oakland’s Darren McFadden still can’t get going as he rushed 11 times for 40 yards, averaging just 3.6 yards per carry. Maurice Jones-Drew returned to the lineup and rushed just two times for one total yard. The running game was supposed to have been their strength and a necessary ingredient to give rookie quarterback Derek Carr some much needed support, but so far this just hasn’t materialized.
Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill also had a successful day going 24/31, 278 yards, and two touchdowns. Tannehill at one point completed 14 straight passes looking nothing like the quarterback who was under fire from head coach Joe Philbin earlier in the week.
Two things are most pressing at this point for the Raiders: the health of quarterback Derek Carr, who left the game with an MCL and high ankle sprain, and the future of Head Coach Dennis Allen. Luckily for Carr they are heading into a bye week meaning he has one more week to rest before they take on the San Diego Chargers at home. It is unlucky for Coach Allen though as it has been rumored for a couple of weeks that owner Mark Davis might make a coaching change during the bye week, especially if the Raiders haven’t yet won a game.
Coach Allen has had it rough this year. His team has travelled twice to the East Coast and then of course to England, racking up more travel miles than anybody else in the league. The Raiders have also dealt with some key injuries to the defense in linebackers Nick Roach and Sio Moore along with safety Tyvon Branch, but the lack of progress that Mark Davis was hoping to see just has not been there.
All signs do point to the Raiders making a coaching change this week. Rumors are that they will hand the job over to assistant coach Tony Sparano on an interim basis. This could be another interesting offseason for the Oakland Raiders as they might be searching for yet another head coach and possibly even a general manager. It’s just another painful development for the diehard fans who have had very little to cheer about for a while now.
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