Oakland Raiders at Los Angeles Chargers: 3 up and 3 down

Jon Gruden

This team will never be able to take off so long as Jon Gruden’s ego goes unchecked. Throughout the entire game, the play calling saw minimal variation. Almost every play was predictable, which is why there were hardly any breakout plays. The defense knew what was coming and that’s because of the lack of adaptation by Gruden. He has to make adjustments as the game goes on. On top of that, what was up with the low energy from the offense? The lack of situational awareness was bush league. I’ve seen better senses of urgency from high school teams.

That tempo falls on Gruden. He’s the one that has to light these guys up and keep them focused. It’s what he gets paid $10 million a year for. Prior to the season, Gruden made it out to be that going hurry up offense would be prevalent at times for the Raiders.

Through five games, we’ve hardly seen any of it. It’s just another spoon fed lie from Gruden and he has a lot of them from what he’s said all offseason. The most atrocious decision of the day was neglecting Marshawn Lynch at the one yard line once again. Gruden said that he’d figured a receiver would be wide open.

That reasoning is very concerning considering how likely it is of a score if they just hand it off to Lynch. There’s no way that Lynch would’ve been denied three times in a row at the one. It’s not like the Chargers showed that they could stop Lynch before the line of scrimmage.

Gruden’s in game play calling is starting to be suspect with each and every game. To be held to three points for the vast majority of the game is inexcusable with the amount of talent on offense. Gruden isn’t panning out like we’d all hoped he would by now and he probably won’t until next season. Remember, this season is essentially a wash.

Gruden made that clear with the Khalil Mack trade. You just hope to see something to be excited for in the future.