Observations From Josh McDaniels’ Words After Raiders Shutout Loss
Observations From Josh McDaniels’ Words After Raiders Shutout Loss
Josh McDaniels isn’t giving up on this Raiders season, yet.
As far as McDaniels goes, the season doesn’t end after Week 8. It’s easy to forget in all the fervor that at 2-5, the Raiders aren’t eliminated from the playoffs, at least not yet. It’s also easy to forget that, at one point, Raider Nation had also given up on last season when the going got tough.
The head coach is in an impossible situation at the moment. What can he say to make fans feel better after a historically bad outing in Week 8? Well, many were triggered by McDaniels’ comments regarding his team’s potential not having been reached yet.
"“Again, it’s a long year. I believe we haven’t reached our best football yet and it’s going to take work and progress and improvement in order to do that. But, again, at this point in time, nobody’s really qualified for anything, and nobody’s been eliminated. And that’s common. I think there are 12 or 13 teams right now that have a winning record, and there are so many games and so much football left to be played”"
It’s a fair point, the Raiders aren’t in fact eliminated yet. Nevertheless, what tone will the coach take if his squad earns another pair of losses, which at that point likely means the playoffs are out of the question? Sure, McDaniels is doing his best to answer as many of the concerns as he possibly can.
From a logical point of view, it’s true; the NFL changes week to week, so it’s any given Sunday. At the same time, the Raiders are currently slated to have the number six pick in next year’s NFL draft. The company line will only work if the bleeding stops.
"“We need to coach and play better to earn better results. Consistency is going to be what we’re going to try to push for. If we can do that and start playing our best football here and start stringing together some wins, you look up at the end of the year and a lot of things can happen. Certainly, that’s our goal. Our goals are still out there. We’re going to need to play better, coach better, to earn them.”"
Moving forward, how does the locker room treat Sunday’s loss? The smart money says it’s just another loss, and with the Jaguars a few days away, they certainly need to focus on the next opponent. Again, it’s a week-to-week business and these professional football players and coaches need short-term memories in these types of scenarios.