OAKLAND, Calif. — Raiders cornerback Tarell Brown has been on good teams before. He knows what it takes to win in the NFL.
And after the 41-17 loss to the Broncos, who ran off five consecutive touchdowns Sunday to put the Raiders out their misery, Brown was left scratching his head.
“It doesn’t add up,” he said. “It doesn’t add up at all.”
This season was supposed to a bridge to brighter days. Instead, the Raiders have regressed to the point where the Hue Jackson era feels like the glory years.
Sure, a .500 season would have been an uphill battle. But after $60 million and a successful draft, you’d think they would have been competitive. Instead, the Raiders are 0-9.
How is that possible?
Sunday’s game was a ringing endorsement for the departure of general manager Reggie McKenzie and every decision-maker underneath owner Mark Davis. If the Broncos are the class of the AFC, it was abundantly clear just how far the Raiders have fallen.
The unavoidable truth for this franchise? It’s time to start over. Again. Already.
But the Raiders don’t have much to start over with.
Rookie linebacker Khalil Mack is a keeper. And though rookie quarterback Derek Carr has been on a steady decline of late, he’s worthy of building around.
Rookie left guard Gabe Jackson is loaded with potential.
After that, who are the keepers? Who are the players you build around?
The Raiders have a few other pretty good players who could be valuable if surrounded by more talent. Linebacker Sio Moore has been productive. T.J. Carrie has some skill to work with. D.J. Hayden is pretty talented for those rare times he is healthy. Offensive linemen Stefen Wisniewski and Austin Howard are solid NFL players. But none of them make you scream playoffs.
Yes, McKenzie gets credit for drafting well the past two years. Several of the bright spots on this team are players he drafted.
He also gets credit for pulling the Raiders out of salary cap trouble and setting up the franchise with plenty of cap space for the offseason.
But is there any reason to trust this regime to use the cap space wisely? The Raiders had the same opportunity last year and are winless.
With no victory in sight. Not even the most skeptic of Raiders followers predicted such epic disappointment.
“We have to stay the course,” interim coach Tony Sparano said. “We have to believe we’re a better football team. I think we’ve got enough professionals in there, enough good young players.”
PHOTOS:
For 27 minutes, it looked like Sunday’s game would be the Raiders’ biggest statement that things are at least headed in the right direction. The defense was putting together another impressive outing, and even had Peyton Manning looking rattled.
The Raiders led 10-6 after Justin Tuck tipped a Manning pass and tracked it down for an interception, which led to a Carr touchdown pass to Brice Butler.
But that inkling of hope for a miracle upset went away quickly as the Raiders morphed back into the Raiders.
Oakland’s defense, which had found life under Sparano, went back to slapstick tackling. And the Raiders’ offense was abysmal, managing six first downs and 123 yards before Manning took a seat on the bench for the final quarter.
“It comes to a point where you have to have pride about what you do,” Brown said. “I feel like the guys have pride about coming to work and getting better every day. It’s just that we’re not finishing, we’re not learning from our mistakes. We keep making the same mistakes over and over and over again.”
No play better signaled how badly this has gotten than Carr’s desperate completion to … his right tackle. In the eye of a collapsing pocket, Carr dumped it off to Khalif Barnes, who rumbled his way 2 yards before fumbling in the third quarter.
“In my head as soon as I threw it,” Carr said, “I was like, ‘Please knock it down.’ That’s just one of those things.”
