CINCINNATI — Even the young guy has heard the rumblings.
“I know there’s going to be a lot of people calling for people’s heads,” rookie center Jackson Powers-Johnson said after the Las Vegas Raiders’ 41-24 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. “But you see us fighting to score and not giving up. That’s what I am going to take from today.”
He will be in the minority, as effort doesn’t mean much for a team that had big dreams, has lost five games in a row and is 2-7. The defense has rallied at times this season in the face of many injuries and an offense that doesn’t pull its weight, but it had no answer for Joe Burrow, Chase Brown or Mike Gesicki on Sunday.
The offense, though, goes into the bye week a floating carcass.
Quarterback Gardner Minshew II was benched for the third time this season, and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy may not survive the bye week. And ironically, it’s the offense’s early game success that makes the rest of the games like Sunday feel especially miserable.
“Today wasn’t a good day in the office,” coach Antonio Pierce said. “We’ve got the bye week to reset. You look at everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything.”
The Raiders drove 70 yards on 11 plays on their first possession, and when Zamir White bulled ahead for a 1-yard touchdown, it marked the fourth time in five games that the Raiders had scored a touchdown on their first possession.
And then … bupkis.
In those five losses, after scoring those four opening touchdowns, the Raiders have scored only four touchdowns on 50 other drives.
It gets worse.
All four of those touchdowns came in the final five minutes when the Raiders were down 14 or more points.
Any theories? Anyone?
“We’ve got the bye week to look at that,” Pierce said.
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.
Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.
Sign Up
“I thought we had a good plan coming in, came out hot and executed, and then really hit a wall,” said Minshew, who finished 10-of-17 for 124 yards with a fumble on a bad handoff to DJ Turner. “That’s something we’re going to look at during the bye week, what happens after our hot starts.”
Anyone else?
“We just have to keep that intensity up and keep doing whatever we’re doing on the first drive,” tight end Brock Bowers said.
The disappearance of the running game is a usual culprit. Alexander Mattison’s first three carries that opening drive went for 7, 4 and 6 yards. The Raiders ran for 43 yards on 18 carries the rest of the game.
“We’re executing early,” Mattison said. “Little details are apparently falling off after that. But there’s no real point where you lose confidence at all. And they get paid on that side of the ball, as well.”
The Raiders were also falling apart physically. Five players — including offensive linemen Kolton Miller, Andrus Peat and Cody Whitehair — left the game with ankle injuries. (Safety Nate Hobbs and tight end Harrison Bryant were the others, and Hobbs said the Bengals’ ankles were more used to the tricky turf.)
The Raiders are now tied for the worst record in the league (2-7) with six other teams, mentioned for all the draft people out there. And maybe that should be all of you.
Pierce can’t look that far ahead, and that’s why he pulled Minshew for Desmond Ridder late in the third quarter. Pierce actually had Ridder warming up on the sideline when Minshew was on the field earlier in the quarter.
“It’s frustrating,” Minshew said. “I always want to be out there with my guys.”
Ridder was claimed off the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad two weeks ago when Raiders quarterback Aidan O’Connell broke his thumb. The former Cincinnati Bearcat and 2022 third-round pick started 17 games over two seasons for the Atlanta Falcons before they moved on in March, trading him to the Cardinals after signing Kirk Cousins and drafting Michael Penix Jr.
Ridder was 1-for-4 for zero yards in his first two series but got better as the game went on, finishing with a 22-yard touchdown run-and-fling to Bowers. He was sacked four times and lost a fumble.
“I felt good, other than the hits,” Ridder said. “It’s like your first car crash in a few years. … The touchdown was a scramble drill. Brock’s a guy you can trust, and that’s huge for a quarterback.”
TD No. 2 for BROCK BOWERS!!!#LVvsCIN | 📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/SWkOwo6uD0
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) November 3, 2024
Pierce said he was looking for a “spark” when he made the switch and that he got what he expected out of him.
“We didn’t get to see that athleticism until late,” Pierce said. “You see him move around the pocket and you see the strong arm. He’s spent 10 days in the building and he was competing.”
“He came in there and he took command,” Mattison said. “We are blessed to have another quarterback like him to come in and have confidence and use his experience to drive us down the field.”
Ridder will almost assuredly be the starter after the bye week when the Raiders travel to face the Miami Dolphins. What other changes may be in store may be known as early as Monday when Pierce talks to reporters, as owner Mark Davis was clearly upset leaving the locker room after talking to Pierce.
Last week, Pierce said Getsy might ultimately “take the fall” and that the play calling “has to get better.” And a team that came into Sunday’s game ranked 28th in total offense and 31st in rushing yards put up 217 yards and 60 yards, respectively.
Raiders passing game coordinator Scott Turner, who was an offensive coordinator with the Washington Commanders from 2020 to ’22 and is the son of former Raiders coach Norv Turner, would seemingly be the next man up at offensive coordinator.
“We’ll reset over the bye week,” Pierce said before a long flight home. “We all have to find a way to get better. We want to pinpoint from this game a lot of things — from coaches to play calling to players and execution. We have to do a much better job of putting ourselves in position to where we actually have a chance to win and not playing catch-up.”
(Top photo of Gardner Minshew: Katie Stratman / Imagn Images)
