Las Vegas Raiders 2020 Week 16 review: Studs and Duds
Raiders head coach Jon Gruden: Dud
This game featured some of the good of Jon Gruden, as the Raiders were able to move the ball well against a very good Dolphins defense, but it featured plenty of the bad as well. The Raiders have struggled to put games away this year because they have not been able to score touchdowns when down by the goal line.
These are familiar issues that popped up in 2019, but they appeared to have been resolved until recent weeks. Aside from their last drive, which we will get to later, the Raiders had the ball inside the Miami 5-yard line three times but were only able to score a touchdown on one of those drives.
If the Raiders scored touchdowns on either of those other two possessions this game would not have been a contest at the end of the fourth quarter, but the Raiders have struggled to put teams away for that reason all year long. Some blame it on Derek Carr’s decision-making, or on the Raiders’ inability to run the ball at the goal line, but the play calls from Gruden have been uninspired inside the 10-yard line.
The next reason Jon Gruden landed himself on the Duds list this week is his decision to settle for a field goal on the Raiders’ last drive of the game to go up 25-23. Obviously, Gruden did not expect his defense to give up a huge play that cost them the game, but if Miami was going to get the ball anyway with less than a minute to go, why not go up by at least six or possibly seven if a two-point conversion was successful?
This is the sort of decision-making that conservative coaches stick to when they are coaching to not lose, rather than to win the game. Had the Raiders scored a touchdown to go up at least six with a minute or so to go, Miami would have to go the 75 yards to win the game, rather than just 35-40 to give their excellent kicker a chance to win it.
This is emblematic of Gruden’s approach to the game, which is incompatible with the modern NFL and the more aggressive nature that most teams are adopting. Some say that Gruden will never change, but if older coaches like Andy Reid and Mike Zimmer can roll the dice on fourth down more often, why can’t Gruden?
A lot of things went wrong for Las Vegas on Saturday night but Gruden’s conservative approach was one of the primary culprits in the loss.