Chiefs Gameday Thread

Well, this is a big test. If O'Connell can learn from his mistakes and minimize turnovers, we could steal one. Ya never know! GO RAIDERS!

Dolphins Gameday Thread

 Solid first half, keeping it close, this would be a statement! GO RAIDERS!

Jets Gamenight Thread

Do we have the beginnings of a new era in the works? Possibly. A should-win against the lowly Jets is a perfect litmus test. GO RAIDERS!

Giants Gameday Thread

 A new era begins today, let's enjoy the minty fresh feeling and see where it takes us. GO RAIDERS!

The End Is The Beginning

Well, the McDaniels / Ziegler "era" is over, like a runaway train that jumped the tracks early and went up in flames. 

Kudos to Mark Davis for pulling the plug early despite the cost. 

However, this just sets us up for more folly from Mark Davis unless he FINALLY gets his shit together. His grace period as owner has long expired. He owns ALL of this: the poor results, the coaching and GM carousel, the awful drafting, the perennial chaos. All of it. 

Say it out loud: The owner's last two head coaching hires were Jon Gruden on a TEN year contract and Josh McDaniels. He gave Gruden the power to bring in a TV analyst as a puppet GM, and Ziegler hasn't been any better at drafting. 

First order of business: Stop the nostalgia! All of it. Gruden was nostalgia. The Raiders have been obsessed with the Patriots going back to Al Davis, which is why we ended up with McDaniels and Ziegler. Reggie McKenzie, another nostalgia pick. 

Stop looking into the rear-view mirror and start looking through the windshield. 

Copy and paste this list of Raiders head coaches and work your way backwards over the past 15 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Las_Vegas_Raiders_head_coaches

Look at that list! Makes me want to wash my eyes out with Comet.

Mark Davis needs to get smarter, fast, like right now. Do better, pick the right GM and coach, have a vision, create an identity, build a culture and execute and stop the chaos. 

Anything less will be just more of the same.

Lions Gamenight Thread

The arrow is not pointing up for the Raiders or Josh McDaniels. I'm afraid that a loss tonight would mean getting stuck with the proverbial fork.

This all starts at the top with Mark Davis, I'm afraid. You just can't be in this situation year after year after year, coach after coach after coach, etc. 

Mark Davis hasn't figured out the coaching position, the GM position or the quarterback position during the entirety of his ownership tenure, and he is the head of an organization that has made a sport of laughably bad and awkward draft picks.

This isn't being negative. It's being honest. There's a difference. 

There's only one thing to do now, beat the Lions and turn this sorry ship around. 

GO RAIDERS!

Bears Gameday Thread

This is such a perfect test for this team, at this time. An obvious should-win game against the lowly Bears helmed by Tyler Bagent (!). A chance to get to 4-3 and keep momentum. A loss? That would be very telling. Just win, baby! GO RAIDERS!

Patriots Gameday Thread

 Good for Jimmy and Jacoby! Go raiders!

Packers Gamenight Thread

Well, this game just feels pivotal for some reason. An odd numbered game that sparks the transition from early season to mid season. 

You go to 1-4 and things start to look pretty dark. You claw back to 2-3 and glimmers of hope begin to shine.

The Packers with Jordan Love are beatable. It's time for the Raiders to RISE UP and seize the momentum. GO RAIDERS!

P.S. Also, a FAVOR you can do me. I just paid the annual fee for domain hosting and associated things for RaiderTake.com. If you could periodically do your Amazon shopping via the "Badasses" book link to the right, that would be much appreciated and help me defray the costs of keeping this site going. You don't have to buy that book! You just need to enter Amazon via that ad link, and then Amazon gives me a small kickback on any purchases you make from there. It's wholly private and I don't see anything personal, it's just a basic affiliate program, thanks! 

Chargers Gameday Thread

 Well, I'm late to this one, it's halftime, but let's face it, it's over. GO RAIDERS? 

UPDATE: Well, it WASN'T over, that is until McDaniels THREW the ball with first and goal and Josh Jacobs on his team and a rookie QB.

This is getting into fireable territory between last week and this one.

Steelers Gamenight Thread

A winnable game, a chance to keep pace with the Chiefs atop the standings of the AFC West, time to show up and make it happen. GO RAIDERS!

Bills Gameday Thread

 Halftime take, not looking good. There’s still time, GO RAIDERS!

Broncos Gameday Thread

Well, it wouldn't be another start to a Raiders season without some sort of nonsense. Hello, Chandler Jones!

Honestly, I don't know what to expect this year. I wish I was more hopeful. This could break a lot of ways. With a repeat performance by Jacobs, a healthy Jimmy G and some improvement in the secondary, who knows. But there's something about this whole McDaniels-Ziegler era that's giving me the heebee-jeebees. Is it too late to go back in time and hire Doug Pederson? Haha. 

Anyhow, here we are: GO RAIDERS!

 

 

2023 Draft Night Thread

Where was I...oh yeah, bye Derek, hello Jimmy!

A lot has gone down since I last posted. If I'm being honest, I wasn't broken hearted about the whole Derek Carr thing. I think he had run his course with the Raiders. If he was really going to pop, it was going to be elsewhere. On the Raiders, it just felt like rinse and repeat, year after year. Good with flashes of great. Eventually you need more than flashes.

We Raiders fans are so starved for an elite QB that we hallucinate potential whenever there's a new shiny object at the position. Stidham! Yeah, no. Mariota. Matt McGloin. Terrelle Pryor, Andrew Walker, Aaron Brooks...maybe just maybe just maybe, umm, no. 

Now comes Jimmy G. There's a chance there. Maybe, maybe. But there's better be a Plan B in the works, considering how often he gets hurt. 

Anyhow, here we are on the precipice of another draft. Who will the Raiders pick? How bullish are you on the immediate future of the team? Bang it here and grab your popcorn!

Goodbye Derek Carr, Hello Future + Trivia

It's official - Derek Carr is no longer an Oakland Raider. 

I have mixed feelings. He was a great Raiders, one of our best QBs in ages.

Yet his ceiling seemed somewhat fixed. Good to great, but not elite. Not a QB who could consistently impose his will on games and team culture, albeit often in very uncertain, unfair or chaotic circumstances.

It got me thinking about this long run of futility for the Raiders, this seemingly endless search for a lasting head coach and an elite franchise QB, among other things. 

So I thought I would throw this out there. Going back around 30 years, since Art Shell's last season in 1994 to conclude his first go-round as head coach, who are the Raiders' Top Three in the following categories over this period:

-Head Coach
-Quarterback
-Overall Best Player

So three choices only, spanning from 1994 to now. Let 'er rip!

Chiefs Gameday Thread / Lost Season Edition

Another lost season. How many of these have I seen since starting this blog in 2005?

That said, I think I see some rays of sunlight peeking through the clouds.

There's been one constant in all of this, and that's ownership. It pains me to say it, because I like Mark Davis, he's a Raider and a renegade. 

But there's more than enough evidence to conclude that this isn't a well-run organization. When you look around at the teams that are perpetually in chaos, grasping at straws and mired in poor culture, it always starts at the top. Jets, Browns, Commanders, Colts, Lions, Raiders...

I'm sad to see Derek Carr go, but I don't mind a fresh start at QB either. It is what it is, and it was probably time if McDaniels and Co. had lost faith in him, since McDaniels and Co. apparently aren't going anywhere.

Today, we get another look at Stidham, and hope to see the team finish out on strong note. It's all we can ask at this point, after another lost season. GO RAIDERS!  

Merrry Christmas, Raider Takers

I'm resisting the temptation to make this a Clown Car Christmas after last night's debacle.

I will say this: how can this team, with the best receiver in the NFL, one of the best RBs, and an (allegedly) very good QB put up another offensive stinker like this? How does our defense so regularly find a way to lose in the last minutes? I boil it down to this: this is a team that lacks FORTITUDE. 

But let's forget all that for today. I love you all, you bring your passion, intellect and heart to this place. Merry Christmas, may the Good News bring you joy and happiness during this holiday season!

Patriots Gameday Thread

I've been doing this a long time, and I'm hard pressed to think of another season that was this exhausting and disappointing. There's outright sucking, we've seen numerous years of that. There's been promising seasons that fizzled toward the end. And there's been a few playoff seasons that were never destined to go much farther than the first round. 

But this season, wow. There's just no conceivable reason for several of these losses, and these same losses have been a pivot point between abject failure and playoff aspirations. We're talking about history-making meltdowns, with the latest one against the Rams being the nail in the coffin of a mini-resurgence of actual playoff hopes. 

Anyhow, just had to get that off my chest. Now we're playing for...pride? Signs of heart and life? Momentum heading into 2023? You name it. All I can say for now is: GO RAIDERS!