Buying: Oakland Raiders won’t win more than four games
No offense to the Cincinnati Bengals, but it’s not like the Raiders lost because Marvin Lewis’ gang was just so amazing.
Oakland looked really bad, and quarterback Derek Carr was sketchy. He was jittery in the pocket and inaccurate on many easy throws—not the kind of start the Raiders needed from him to open his sophomore season. Worse still, he injured his hand and had to leave the game, though thankfully the x-rays came back negative.
Matt McGloin wasn’t great in reserve, either. He completed a high volume of passes but the team only managed 183 passing yards between both quarterbacks, averaging only 4.7 yards per attempt—abysmal numbers by any measure.
Adding insult to injury, rookie receiver Amari Cooper received some rough treatment from Bengals defensive back Adam Jones, who ripped his helmet off and then slammed his head on that helmet.
How much you want to bet Adam Jones is subject to league discipline for this nasty hit?https://t.co/hD0tpGa552
— Sportsnaut (@Sportsnaut) September 13, 2015
Perhaps more concerning than Oakland’s sputtering offense was the team’s defense, which got zero pressure on quarterback Andy Dalton, despite the recent addition of Aldon Smith, and which was unable to stop the Bengals from running at will.
Cincinnati moved the ball up and down the field on Oakland’s supposedly improved defense, gaining 396 total yards en route to a 33-13 victory.
The Raiders do have more talent this year than they have in recent memory, but in no way is this team ready to ascend out of the basement of the AFC West. There are too many systemic issues at play for head coach Jack Del Rio to fix at this time.