Jon Gruden Celebrates A Great Win
I have to admit, I am enjoying the implosion of Jon Gruden. I loved him as a commentator but it was mostly because he was a manic ball of nonsense energy and I found him very entertaining in that way. I don’t even think he was that good as a commentator. He was just fun, because he was a complete nut. As a coach he seems less interesting because we don’t get as much screentime with the nutball.
Plus, the way he appears to be running the team is kind of baffling. So watching a team give this man 100$ million to run a team like it’s 1999 is hilarious. What’s even more hilarious is that his coaching style of getting teams ramped up to complete clearly works. For half a game.
The Raiders would be 3-0 if games ended at halftime. The Raiders before halftime look like a good team. The offense works. I was genuinely impressed by how they game out during the Rams game in week 1. They legitimately looked like the team to beat against someone we all expected to be a Super Bowl contender. The gameplan seemed modern or at least timeless in how they attacked the cutting edge Rams squad. Marshawn Lynch’s TD run was classic Beastmode. I was all ready to eat some crow. Then…well, the second half happened.
You can practically write the same script for the next two games. It’s like the entire team starts thinking about dead dogs at halftime because they can’t finish. The Rams game you could consider as just being outmatched by talent. The Broncos game maybe you could consider bad luck in some ways because with one missed XP that game didn’t go to overtime. But the Dolphins game this past weekend was just more of the same Raiders. The Dolphins are 3-0 but they are the least convincing 3-0 team you can imagine. They look…fine. They don’t look like they should be one of only a few teams to not lose yet. They scream second half of the season “fade into obscurity” to me.
Going 0-3 pretty much ends any hope for the playoffs, especially with the Chiefs on fire. This will be an interesting team to follow this year because either they’ll continue to collapse in hilarious fashion or they’ll finally start pulling it together and make some interesting games. Despite what I thought this team has some potential. I still don’t think Gruden is the guy to get them there though. Falling apart late in games feels like a coaching issue.
Man they sure could have used a stellar pass rusher in these games.
Would you get copyrighted if you were to draw him as Chucky?
That would clearly fall under parody laws, so yeah, he could. Besides, I don’t think MGM is anywhere near as crazy as Disney or American Greetings (Strawberry Shortcake) with chasing down IP violations.
The Dolphins are one of the few things that actually melt in December.
I’m pretty sure if he could Gruden would sell his soul to have Rich Gannon back
To be fair, they have played against teams that have played fairly well so far. Not defending him. I actually think he made the right move by trading Mack only because once you tie up a bunch of money on one player, you set yourself up for a bad fall later on to not build effectively around that player. Yes, Mack had been fantastic. But let’s not kid ourselves, the Bears are not on top of the NFCN because they are better than the Packers and Vikings. Not yet anyways. Gruden was always going to get torn apart this season even if he had Mack simply because of that albatross of a contract.
Disagree. Mack is a first ballot HoF talent. They would’ve crushed Denver with him, and possibly win the other 2 games. It’s the worst move since the Bears hitched themselves to Jay Cutler for 7 years.
You don’t trade away HoF talent at QB or either line. In 2017 the Bengals traded O-lineman Whitworth to the Rams. Jared Goff & the Rams became Superbowl contenders. The Bengals fell back to a losing season.
Your points are sound, but Andrew Whitworth is not a Hall of Famer.
The hardest part of this discussion is comparing all of this to what the Raiders MIGHT get. Obviously, if Gruden whiffs on those picks, he’s done, that trade will go down as the worst trade in NFL history EVER, and the Bears will be huge winners. On the flip side, the Raiders may wind up netting two franchise caliber players at their respected positions. Short term winner is undoubtably the Bears. But I still think from a business viewpoint, the money that Mack wanted greatly affects how short a window you have to compete for a championship. You absolutely want him on your team. But as a Saints fan, I’ve watched my team hand out deals that have left them in tough spot after tough the last few years. You can’t just look at this year. When you play chess, it’s not just about this move. It’s about all the moves that follow as well. I’m not saying it was smart. I understand why the deal was made. Mack is playing lights out right now. Almost like he might be a little motivated.
I wanna be upset about the Dolphins not getting any respect but last time they started 3-0 was 2013 and we all know how that turned out.
One thing to remember is that the Raiders have the oldest average roster in the NFL which could explain the crispness of early games and looking tired late game. Especially since most of the older talent aren’t superstars but tail end of career holding the team over type players.
Gruden is the living, breathing embodiment of a dumpster fire coach. He’s like Gus Bradley with charisma. Everyone who isnt a Raiders fan is laughing at the entire franchise every week, and hoping he gets at least 6 wins so we can continue to watch him drag that franchise to where it belongs, on a stage , doing Cabaret , in Vegas.
I do enjoy watching Gruden talk about how an elite pass rusher can help a team while simultaneously denying that he made a mistake.
I wonder how much of a factor Mack could have been for these games. They still would have lost to the Rams anyway.