We were wondering which Raiders team this really was — the mistake-prone outfit that was pushed around by the Chargers in Week 1 or the the team that won at Baltimore last week.
Well, we got our answer.
It’s impossible to state how embarrassing this was. How inexcusable a loss this was. How bad the Raiders looked in every phase of football.
Carolina — yes, that Carolina — waltzed into Allegiant Stadium on Sunday and had its way despite being the NFL’s worst team for some time.
Funny. It was the other guys who looked the part Sunday. The guys wearing black.
Carolina won 36-22 and it wasn’t that close. The team that hadn’t owned a lead in a game for 280 days, that hadn’t taken a snap with the lead in the fourth quarter since the 2022 season, rolled to victory with ease.
It was last week, following their victory against the Ravens, when the Raiders spoke about being disrespected nationally. About how they were near 10-point underdogs in Baltimore. About how nobody believed in them.
Why would anyone after a performance like this?
Baltimore shine gone
You have to earn respect. You can’t show up in the fourth quarter and pull off a memorable upset one week and then lay a massive egg the next. You have to perform consistently.
There is no respect coming from a loss to Carolina. Just the opposite.
Losing in such a way in your home opener … everything about the Baltimore win, all the shine and good feelings, disappeared Sunday.
“Not good enough, obviously,” Raiders coach Antonio Pierce said. “Scheme wasn’t good enough, design of plays wasn’t good enough. What we thought would work didn’t work on the grass.
“We got our ass whooped. Got to put the pads back on and get back on the sled.”
This was bad. This was worse, given the opponent and the fact it was the home opener, than anything seen under Jon Gruden or Josh McDaniels. The honeymoon period for Pierce ended with this defeat.
The Raiders have some serious issues. They have played 12 quarters and have been sound offensively for one of them. The run game doesn’t exist. They continue to get pushed around up front. I’m not sure just a few more reps on the sled will fix all of it.
The defense wasn’t any better Sunday. Pushed around there, too.
Carolina entered 0-2 after being outscored 73-13. It didn’t have a drive longer than five plays against the Chargers last week. And on Sunday, it amassed 437 yards on 70 plays.
The Panthers had their first opening-drive touchdown in 28 games.
We could go all day with this stuff. With how pathetic the Panthers have been.
“I’ve been around this league a minute and any given Sunday,” Raiders running back Alexander Mattison said. “They came out and were the better team. We haven’t put our best football on tape yet. It’s a long season. We needed to build off the (Baltimore win) and weren’t able to do that. Back to the drawing board and (we’ll) look at what went wrong.”
Easy. Everything did.
Bad as bad gets
The white flag was officially waved with 3:32 remaining in the third quarter. Pierce chose to punt with his team down 20 and facing fourth-and-2 from its own 38-yard-line.
Packed it in. Accepted defeat.
It was as bad as bad gets, this whooping of the Raiders. Embarrassing. Inexcusable.
Feel free to add your own description. None will be too harsh.
“If I could say I saw it coming, I would have told you,” Pierce said. “But I didn’t see that coming.”
Nobody did. But it happened.
Respect must be earned. And a loss like this isn’t going to get you very far in that category.
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at [email protected]. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.
