Ravens Gameday Thread

Last week, the Raiders proved that they have been trying to win all along. Given their pitiful efforts against the Niners and Chargers, I had to wonder. It seemed like a team that was hell-bent on climbing the draft board. Then the Cardinals game happened. So it turns out that the Raiders are really just that bad, but apparently they are trying to get better. Today presents a good chance to prove that they've got a semblance of mojo, just gotta contain the rookie QB and be creative on offense. So we are officially back to: GO RAIDERS!

One Postgame Take

Can't this team even tank correctly? If we're tanking, what's the point of winning a meaningless game against our competitor for the #1 pick? Are we jogging after 49ers or in hot pursuit of Cardinals? Are we tearing this thing down from the outset or trading away third-round picks for Martavis Bryant? Are we in on Derek Carr or trying to demoralize him? Once this mess of a season is over, Gruden and Co. had better get to work. They have a lot to clean up, and a lot of picks to get right. If they aren't up to the task, then we are in for yet another nuclear winter in the Raider Nation.

Cardinals Gameday Thread

I've been about as lazy as Raiders defenders jogging after 49ers on Thursday night, failing to put up postgame takes (and corresponding Clown Cars), because, well...apathy? Now that Mark Davis is playing the fall guy, I guess we might as well lay this all on his doorstep: seven seasons since Al Davis passed away, and all he and Reggie and now Gruden have to show for it, beside one brief season of hope, is a total teardown (don't call it a rebuild yet) and an imminent move to Las Vegas. This organization is now shoulder to shoulder with the Browns and Bills, the kind of sustained incompetence that defies the very phenomenon of parity that the NFL is geared to cultivate. So there you go, and I guess we root for a win today, unless we're rooting for more tanking in the hopes that Gruden picks the right guy at #1 instead of letting the better guy fall to #2? GO...RAIDERS?

Chargers Gameday Thread

Tall order today, all things considered. If we're supposed to be rooting for the first pick in the draft instead of a victory today, that might explain last week. However, it wouldn't explain giving up a third rounder for Martavis Bryant before the season started. Are the Raiders even trying to win today? I hope so, but then that would make the first half of the season all the more inexplicable. GO....?

One Postgame Take

The offense was inept. The defense literally quit trying. The Raiders got embarrassed by one of the worst teams in the NFL, and a supposed local rival, on prime time television.


If you think that this was just part of some brilliantly orchestrated plan, then get out of here. If you think that they told their supposed franchise quarterback and his o-line in the meetings, "Just suck as hard as you can and take a beating," then you don't know how the NFL works (even if you are "tanking" at the executive level). If you think Gruden was playacting when the cameras caught him muttering "What the f***" when a Niners back ran through a bunch of halfhearted arm tackles, I've got a bridge to sell you.

Here's where you have to place your faith now:


1) Jon Gruden hits home runs on the many draft picks he's accumulated by selling off one of the best players in the NFL as well as other spare parts, and with the higher draft positions secured by tonight's debacle.


2) Jon Gruden also proves to be savvy in free agency and a leader of men, inspiring them to generate max effort for common cause.


3) Jon Gruden then goes toe-to-toe with the best and the brightest coaches in the NFL in terms of schemes, game planning and preparation.


If, and when, all of these things come together after one of the most extensive rebuilds in NFL history, the (Las Vegas) Raiders will become a perennial contender.


Feeling lucky?


In the meantime, the joke is on us, the OAKLAND Raiders fans.

Niners Gamenight Thread

 Well, tonight is the first-pick-in-the-draft bowl. GO RAIDERS!?