Week 3 GDT: Raiders (2-0) vs. Dolphins (1-1) - Dolphin sashimi is on the menu

[SBXISBXVSBXVIII]

29 minutes ago, BigD1123 said:

All offseason everyone said we needed to be 3 and 2 through the first 5. We are 3 and 0 and still complaining 😆 🤣 😂 

Not we’re. Just some 😫

[SBXISBXVSBXVIII]

How many complainers would take 3-0 before the season started?

[Mr Raider]

3 minutes ago, Jeremy408 said:

Don’t get me wrong I wasn’t coming into this game thinking we were just gonna smash the dolphins. I actually knew it was going to be much harder than everybody thought it was going to be because one Jacoby Brissett is much better than to a Tagovailoa. Plus this is actually a very good pass defense(which happens to be our offensive of strength at the moment). They also have a very underrated weapons that with the right quarterback(A.k.a. a quarterback that’s not Tua) they can be very difficult to stop

That being said the problem with this win is the same problem I had with the Jets win last year. Yes we won and are 3-0 for the first time since like what? 2016 But if you actually look at that type of stuff that we got away with there’s no way we can get away with that against the chargers next week and my thing is I want to keep winning.
 

If you look at the season predictions thread, I have very high expectations for The Raiders this year(I put 12-5) but my thing is there’s no way we make that playing like this lol

We haven't started 3-0 since 2002. 

I hear what you're saying. And you aren't wrong. There was a lot to like, a lot to be disappointed in, a lot to be frustrated with. 

But it's also the NFL. And games are rarely easy. Winning games is a struggle for even good teams a lot of the time. The question is can we use these negatives and poor decisions as a tool to be better going forward. But in the NFL you are also defined by your record first and foremost. And out of all 32 teams, only a handful after 3 weeks can say they are unbeaten. This Raider team, is one of them. Even if it shouldn't have been as difficult. Even if we shouldn't have needed to win it on the final drive of OT. We still found a way to win. And it's easier to acknowledge problems, fix the problems, and build on things after wins. Especially a win as ugly as this one. 

It shows us we still aren't a team that is going to blow away any team in the NFL, not with any consistency, and a lot of times it's because our HC seems to get in the way most with his offensive play calling. But in my eyes the Raiders from 19 and 20 lose this game in OT. The 21 Raiders found a way to be 3-0. Should we feel like a super bowl contender after watching this game? Nope. Too many mistakes, too conservative, too many bonehead big plays given up, but this team is super young, starting basically an entire Ol, been without our pro bowl RB two weeks in a row, starting basically 3 out of 4 new guys on the DL, starting 2 out of 3 new guys at LB, and starting 2 out of 4 new guys in the secondary. Oh and all of those guys on defense are playing in a new scheme or starting in that new scheme with entirely new teammates, or both. 3 weeks in. The defense has looked pretty solid the majority of the time. And there is a lot of hope they will get better. 

The offensive line is much more up in the air. As is the conservative to a fault play calling. 

But again, after watching Raider football over the past 20 years, we don't have much to be excited about, to be hopeful about, to just feel good about. I hope none of us lose sight of that. We are 3-0 for the first time in 19 years. If we can't take joy from that regardless of how it happened, we all should go back and watch the low lights of 2004-2020 excluding 2016. I bet you it'll make you feel good about the win. Regardless of how it came. 

[Jeremy408]

12 minutes ago, Mr Raider said:

We haven't started 3-0 since 2002. 

I hear what you're saying. And you aren't wrong. There was a lot to like, a lot to be disappointed in, a lot to be frustrated with. 

But it's also the NFL. And games are rarely easy. Winning games is a struggle for even good teams a lot of the time. The question is can we use these negatives and poor decisions as a tool to be better going forward. But in the NFL you are also defined by your record first and foremost. And out of all 32 teams, only a handful after 3 weeks can say they are unbeaten. This Raider team, is one of them. Even if it shouldn't have been as difficult. Even if we shouldn't have needed to win it on the final drive of OT. We still found a way to win. And it's easier to acknowledge problems, fix the problems, and build on things after wins. Especially a win as ugly as this one. 

It shows us we still aren't a team that is going to blow away any team in the NFL, not with any consistency, and a lot of times it's because our HC seems to get in the way most with his offensive play calling. But in my eyes the Raiders from 19 and 20 lose this game in OT. The 21 Raiders found a way to be 3-0. Should we feel like a super bowl contender after watching this game? Nope. Too many mistakes, too conservative, too many bonehead big plays given up, but this team is super young, starting basically an entire Ol, been without our pro bowl RB two weeks in a row, starting basically 3 out of 4 new guys on the DL, starting 2 out of 3 new guys at LB, and starting 2 out of 4 new guys in the secondary. Oh and all of those guys on defense are playing in a new scheme or starting in that new scheme with entirely new teammates, or both. 3 weeks in. The defense has looked pretty solid the majority of the time. And there is a lot of hope they will get better. 

The offensive line is much more up in the air. As is the conservative to a fault play calling. 

But again, after watching Raider football over the past 20 years, we don't have much to be excited about, to be hopeful about, to just feel good about. I hope none of us lose sight of that. We are 3-0 for the first time in 19 years. If we can't take joy from that regardless of how it happened, we all should go back and watch the low lights of 2004-2020 excluding 2016. I bet you it'll make you feel good about the win. Regardless of how it came. 

Oh trust me I understand all that and I'm not one of those doom and gloom raider fans as you can tell by the things I say generally

I'm just saying we're not gonna win against the chargers trying to pull what we did this week(and I want to be 4-0)

Edited September 27, 2021 by Jeremy408

[Mr Raider]

10 minutes ago, Jeremy408 said:

Oh trust me I understand all that and I'm not one of those doom and gloom raider fans as you can tell by the things I say generally

I'm just saying we're not gonna win against the chargers trying to pull what we did this week(and I want to be 4-0)

I agree with you man. I am generally a very optimistic Raider fan. Which is weird because I'm much more pessimistic by nature in my regular life, but I'm almost always one of the fans trying to look for the bright spots or the silver linings. 

And even with that said I am in absolute agreement with anyone that says todays type of play will not get it done against the best teams, or even the average ones week in and week out. As a fan, I want the coaching staff to have your outlook and be extremely vocal nailing that into every players head. They found a way to win, which is important, but if they want the winning to continue they have a lot to work on and clean up. I desperately hope the coaches hammer all of that home more than anything else this week. 

As a fan however? I'll take every single ugly win. I'll take every down to the wire, life shortening, hair graying win possible. There have just been so few all things considered since I was a 12 year old boy watching us play in our last super bowl. I obviously want to win next week, and every single week after. And hopefully Gruden will get us to the point where I will be slightly deflated at a game like this because I know what it means bigger picture. But we have to walk before we can run. And if we can become a playoff team that is still a step behind the true contenders on the backs of ugly wins like today? I'll happily take that right now. And then once we have become established that we are at least that, I will expect much more to reach the next peak. 

Basically, deep down I know you're right. And it may show itself in an ugly loss next weekend because of it. I do not disagree or am I under any illusion that isn't a distinct possibility if we play the way we did today. I hope the guys inside the locker room are thinking these exact same thoughts. But as a fan of a team that has been so bad for so long, experienced a lot of ugly losses where we weren't even competitive, and has found a way to shoot ourselves in the foot to lose games we should have won, I am simply happy to get the win and be 3-0 for the first time as an adult. 

Not really arguing with you man. I know you look at the positives and you certainly aren't a negative attitude/downer constantly on the forum. I agree with your overall points. I just want all of us that truly do love this team and want to see us get back to the dominance of yesteryear that have gone through a 20+ year stretch of a lot of losing, being the laughing stock of the NFL, with no future to speak of to make sure we keep everything in perspective. It's alright to be critical and talk about what we could have done better and what we HAVE to do better to keep winning. I just don't want any of us to miss the forest for the trees. We all know how hard wins can be to come by in this league, when our team has found a way to be 3-0 I'm going to try and get everyone to take at least a few minutes and just enjoy it. Without worrying about what it means for next weeks game or anything else. That's all..

[Jeremy408]

2 minutes ago, Mr Raider said:

I agree with you man. I am generally a very optimistic Raider fan. Which is weird because I'm much more pessimistic by nature in my regular life, but I'm almost always one of the fans trying to look for the bright spots or the silver linings. 

And even with that said I am in absolute agreement with anyone that says todays type of play will not get it done against the best teams, or even the average ones week in and week out. As a fan, I want the coaching staff to have your outlook and be extremely vocal nailing that into every players head. They found a way to win, which is important, but if they want the winning to continue they have a lot to work on and clean up. I desperately hope the coaches hammer all of that home more than anything else this week. 

As a fan however? I'll take every single ugly win. I'll take every down to the wire, life shortening, hair graying win possible. There have just been so few all things considered since I was a 12 year old boy watching us play in our last super bowl. I obviously want to win next week, and every single week after. And hopefully Gruden will get us to the point where I will be slightly deflated at a game like this because I know what it means bigger picture. But we have to walk before we can run. And if we can become a playoff team that is still a step behind the true contenders on the backs of ugly wins like today? I'll happily take that right now. And then once we have become established that we are at least that, I will expect much more to reach the next peak. 

Basically, deep down I know you're right. And it may show itself in an ugly loss next weekend because of it. I do not disagree or am I under any illusion that isn't a distinct possibility if we play the way we did today. I hope the guys inside the locker room are thinking these exact same thoughts. But as a fan of a team that has been so bad for so long, experienced a lot of ugly losses where we weren't even competitive, and has found a way to shoot ourselves in the foot to lose games we should have won, I am simply happy to get the win and be 3-0 for the first time as an adult. 

Not really arguing with you man. I know you look at the positives and you certainly aren't a negative attitude/downer constantly on the forum. I agree with your overall points. I just want all of us that truly do love this team and want to see us get back to the dominance of yesteryear that have gone through a 20+ year stretch of a lot of losing, being the laughing stock of the NFL, with no future to speak of to make sure we keep everything in perspective. It's alright to be critical and talk about what we could have done better and what we HAVE to do better to keep winning. I just don't want any of us to miss the forest for the trees. We all know how hard wins can be to come by in this league, when our team has found a way to be 3-0 I'm going to try and get everyone to take at least a few minutes and just enjoy it. Without worrying about what it means for next weeks game or anything else. That's all..

I just try to give an honest analysis each time not based on overreaction on either side of the spectrum. Don't overreact when a player does poorly and automatically label them a bust or that everybody we pick up is "dumpster fire" simply because we picked them up but I also don't act like the team is arrived with an ugly win like this one. But I will say is this is the type of game we would've gotten smashed if it was last year.

I definitely agree with the fact that the team is much more resilient than last year hands-down. I just wanna see them be that same kind of resilient next week when we have a chance to claim 1st in the division. I don't want this to be one of those things like the last two years where it's like we get excited about some thing only to have to come back to the reality that it was just a winning moment rather than a winning culture

By the way that means were the same age lol

[raidr4life]

1 hour ago, SBXISBXVSBXVIII said:

JUST WIN BABY!!!!!!!!!

Yeah Im happy we won, i had to calm down some after the Raiders cost me $1000 on a 6 teamer 

[Jerry]

2 hours ago, SBXISBXVSBXVIII said:

How many complainers would take 3-0 before the season started?

I'm sure in all honesty most of us believed we'd be 1-2 right now.  We all knew we had a brutal first 3 weeks.  Somehow (DC and defense) we came out 3-0.

[SimonGruber]

3 hours ago, Jeremy408 said:

Oh trust me I understand all that and I'm not one of those doom and gloom raider fans as you can tell by the things I say generally

I'm just saying we're not gonna win against the chargers trying to pull what we did this week(and I want to be 4-0)

The team got pretty banged up coming off another dramatic win. Chargers went in to arrowhead got a big win themselves. I’m guessing it opens PK. Ughh kinda lean LAC if being honest 

[Trojan]

You guys think Gus Bradley is going to get plucked for a HC role if our defense keeps this up?

[RaidersAreOne]

1 minute ago, Trojan said:

You guys think Gus Bradley is going to get plucked for a HC role if our defense keeps this up?

I assume teams will still be scared of his tenure in Jax but tough to say.

[Jeremy408]

3 minutes ago, Trojan said:

You guys think Gus Bradley is going to get plucked for a HC role if our defense keeps this up?

Yup! Ive thought about that already

[Jeremy408]

2 minutes ago, RaidersAreOne said:

I assume teams will still be scared of his tenure in Jax but tough to say.

Thats my devils advocate.

[NYRaider]

6 hours ago, SBXISBXVSBXVIII said:

How many complainers would take 3-0 before the season started?

3-0 is incredible but we have to remain consistent.

[Darbsk]

8 hours ago, Mr Raider said:

Hey, at the end of the day, in the NFL its a wins and losses business. Nobody cares about the journey, nobody cares about how dominant the win looked, there's no moral victories, and zero style points when you win in dominant fashion or lose a game you easily could have won. End of the day, you are what your record says. And our record says 3-0. And I believe the first time in NFL history a team has started off 3-0 over 3 teams that won 10+ games the previous season. 

I don't put too much stock in that because teams change significantly year to year. The Ravens can beat anyone, including the Chiefs a lot in the media had penciled in as an undefeated type team, or need a 66 yard FG to beat the winless Lions. The Steelers can handly beat the Bills, or lose at home to the Raiders and then lose to the Bengals the following week. 

The Dolphins proved last season they are a very well coached team. They fight hard. They compete. They don't give up. They may not have the most talented roster, but they can beat even good teams with a well coached, disciplined, talented defense and an offense that can do enough. Credit to them for coming out, jumping on us early, and then fighting back to almost steal a win late. 

All of that being said, a lot of credit to the Dolphins, but it still had a lot to do with the fact that this team under Gruden and company can make some baffling conservative play calls. It's like when we should probably be playing conservative, we get cute, like going for the 4th and 1 on our own 34 very early in a game where no team has established momentum, and the times when we should be aggressive and look to put a team away that we have outplayed we get conservative. Like taking the ball out of DCs hands trying to chew up clock when the defense gave us 2 chances to totally end the game. Or the prevent defense with 2 or 3 minutes left. 

Hopefully this is a game that will help them grow and understand when we have opportunities to finish the game, we need to dance with the one that brought us, and that in most games is going to be DC and the offense being aggressive, being creative, looking to score and ignoring the time, and not going run up the gut, run up the gut, run up the gut, punt. I have my doubts because this has been a theme for years. 

At the end of the day though, it's always good to be critical and look for the things to improve that ALMOST killed us this game, but we found a way to navigate through and win anyway. Obviously a lot to love, a lot to like, a lot to be worried about, and a lot to be critical of, but at the end of the day we are 3-0 for the first time in almost 20 years. So we absolutely should enjoy it. 

There may be some silver lining that the Raider team from the last 2 years goes down 14-0 in a game we are supposed to win after a couple of big wins, and they totally pick it in. And get the doors blown off of us. Instead we fought and clawed our way back, took serious control, and let them hang around and paid for it, but we still found a way to compose ourselves and make enough plays to win. This result could be much more impactful for our team than getting blown out (same old Raiders storyline) or winning comfortably (we were the favorite at home), instead we had a little of both and we saw firsthand that this team is good enough despite past games to get jumped on early, to take command over a team and just as easily let them back in the game and have it go down to the wire. In one game we saw all stages of the Gruden Raiders. Hard to get too high on your victories when it was a game like today. Hopefully they use that as a tool to keep the guys focused, hungry, and to keep improving. So we can go out and get a victory next weekend. 

3-0 and in first place in the AFC West with the Chiefs in the cellar? I don't care how we got here, I'm enjoying this one. RAIDER NATION!!

Agree once again, however one thing that really concerns me is that this very same tendancy to clam up and run, run, 3rd and long, punt with a small lead lost us games last year and it nearly did again. It's a trend and it WILL cost us games, it's happened several times and we've been lucky a few times. But we don't seem to be learning at all, just doing the same thing over and over.

Does anyone here think that was a good idea? Is there anyone here that thought we might do something else after the turnover on downs? I suspect everyone here knew exactly what was coming and thus so did the opposition which makes it easy to stop. It was absolutely crying out for playaction or a screen which is something we do well, Carr was in rhythm, Edwards, Renfrow and Waller have produced when we have counted on them this year so I just don't understand this infatuation with run up the gut for zero yards ploy, especially when the OL is really struggling. 

We're not learning from mistakes that we've been lucky have not cost us. Sooner rather than later they will cost us and we can all see it.