With the Raiders surrounded in controversy the Raiders and Broncos battle for second place in the AFC West in Denver.
Last week, news came out that former head coach Jon Gruden had used derogatory and racist remarks to describe NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith in a 2011 email. That obviously was a distraction to the players on the team and resulted in a 20-9 loss at home.
On Monday, more emails came out dating as late as 2018, the year Gruden was hired by the Oakland Raiders at the time, and Gruden resigned as a result of the release of those emails. Special teams and Assistant Head Coach Rich Bisaccia will now take over head coaching duties for the remainder of the season, which I believe is a good choice to man the ship moving forward.
Despite everything that has transpired this week, the Raiders still have to go out and play a divisional football game on Sunday on the road against the Denver Broncos, who are also looking to bounce back from a two-game losing streak after starting the season 3-0. The Broncos aren’t going to pity, nor take it easy on the Raiders this upcoming Sunday because they lost their head coach, and they’re probably salivating at hopefully getting a mentally wounded Raiders team.
General Manager Mike Mayock, interim head coach Rick Bisaccia, and team captains Derek Carr, Darren Waller, and Maxx Crosby all spoke on Wednesday, and all shared the same message of moving on and focusing on Football.
Here are some reasonable expectations for Sunday’s showdown against the Denver Broncos.