The Oakland Raiders came off an impressive first win of the season versus the Kansas City Chiefs looking to win two in a row against the St. Louis Rams. The result was an embarrassing 52-0 loss leaving the team searching for answers.
Said interim Head Coach Tony Sparano when asked if he saw this coming? “No, I’ll be honest with you – and I said this to the players – there was one day in practice this week I didn’t think we had a great day of practice. Again, that’s my fault. I have to do a better job of making sure those things don’t happen out there. All that being said, it’s not something that I saw coming. I knew we were playing a team that was a good team. They’ve beaten good teams, specifically in this place, and they’re a good defense. I knew that that was the case coming in here, but to say I’d seen this coming, no, I didn’t see this coming.”
Raiders embarrassed by Rams
The Rams started the game incredibly fast, throwing the ball on the first nine plays of the game. They scored touchdowns on their first five possessions, and added a field goal on their sixth drive midway through the second quarter to take a 38-0 lead into halftime. One interception from backup Quarterback Matt Schaub in the fourth quarter was returned for a 43 yard touchdown. The Raiders committed five turnovers and were sacked six times. The Rams didn’t turn the ball over and gave up just one sack. The Raiders just looked like they weren’t ready to play.
Asked if the team came out flat today QB Derek Carr had this to say. “I guess so because it just wasn’t us. That didn’t look like us, what we had been working on. Obviously, times like that are going to happen. You never want it to be like this. You never want to go through those times, but they do happen in this league especially against a really good team like they have. I don’t know if ‘flat’ is the word, but it just wasn’t us.”
How the Raiders respond to this is anyone’s guess. There are no positives to take from this game expect to approach this as a learning experience. The remaining four teams on their schedule are a combined 30-18, with no team having a worse record than 7-5. It is not conceivable at this point that the Raiders finish the season with just one win, assuring themselves of the number one pick in next year’s draft. The question at this point is who from the Raiders staff will be around to help make this first pick? Whatever Tony Sparano had accomplished in Mark Davis’s eyes after beating the Chiefs would have certainly vanished after this defeat to the Rams. Only Davis knows how he truly feels, but it is almost certain at this point that Sparano will not be the Head Coach next year.
Will it be Jim Harbaugh? Some, including ESPN’s Adam Schefter, seem to think so.
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