The Las Vegas Raiders have fielded some bad teams in recent memory. Antonio Pierce and Josh McDaniels' squads had some devastating low points, but after Week 7's 31-0 loss against the Kansas City Chiefs, Raider Nation is largely prepared to pull the plug on the Pete Carroll experiment.
Carroll's postgame comments were the only thing less inspiring than the effort on the field, as the Raiders were brutally outmatched against their AFC West rival, and it showed how far behind the team is. It was a demoralizing defeat, because, truly, punter A.J. Cole was the lone bright spot.
Defensively, Las Vegas got picked apart by Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Co., but offensively, it was far, far worse. In fact, the offense did something that they hadn't done since JaMarcus Russell, arguably the biggest bust in NFL history, was under center in Oakland.
Raiders' offense reached JaMarcus Russell-level lows in loss to Chiefs
On Sunday, the Raiders totaled just 95 yards of offense and gained three first downs in the entire contest. This made them the first NFL team to record three or fewer first downs in a game since the Russell-led Raiders did it in 2008, according to the Associated Press' Josh Dubow.
To make matters worse, Las Vegas ran just 30 offensive plays in the 60-minute matchup. This was the fewest number of offensive plays run in a game since the Cleveland Browns ran 28 in Week 1 of the 1999 NFL season, which was the Browns' first game back in the NFL after leaving in 1995.
Widening the scope, the Raiders are only the second team since 1950 to run 30 or fewer plays in a game. An embarrassing element of this low output is that the Chiefs had 30 first downs and 31 points compared to Las Vegas' 30 total plays, and Kansas City scored four touchdowns compared to the Raiders' three first downs.
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Part of the issue was that the Chiefs dominated the time of possession battle, as they held the ball on offense for 42:08, compared to the Raiders having it for 17:52. The defense certainly had a hard time stopping Kansas City, but the offense never gave the defense a chance to rest.
Chip Kelly and his offensive staff have some serious explaining to do after this performance, which can only be truly equated to that of the JaMarcus Russell-led Raiders. It was one of the most brutal offensive performances in the history of the NFL, so changes need to be made.
It is unlikely that Las Vegas fires Kelly, but if they were going to, it would be during the Week 8 bye. That way, they would have plenty of time to prepare for the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 9 and at least put up a fight offensively.