Raiders mailbag: How will they finish? Guessing 9-7 but hoping for 10 for sake of home fans
ALAMEDA — The home stretch is over for the Raiders. Four of the last six on the road, a 6-4 record and an opportunity to pass the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC West. If you thought that’s the way it was going to be heading in to Week 11 I hope you’ve been making regular trips to a sports book.
Some mailbag questions with the New York Jets (3-7) up next at Metlife Stadium.
Q: Obviously it’s a silly question but what is your final W-L prediction for the Raiders? Also, why do you think Carr struggles at KC? — @BButhge
I’ve seen sillier ones. I thought I was being overly optimistic when I had the Raiders for 8-8 going in to the season. And to be honest, I never revised it after the Antonio Brown debacle. I’m still looking at this team much like the first two teams Jon Gruden had with the Raiders — teams that fought and competed and were seldom anyone’s patsy. Those teams went 8-8, although the 1999 team could have won 10 games easy with some decent place kicking. At this point, 8-8 would be a major disappointment. I’m thinking six competitive games and a 9-7 finish, just out of the playoffs. Hoping to be wrong on that for the sake of the East Bay fans watching their team in Oakland for the last time. A home playoff game would be terrific. As for Carr at Arrowhead, there’s plenty of time to deal with that next week but I’d venture to guess a good running game and solid pass blocking would alleviate a lot of his past issues in Kansas City.
Q: How do you feel our rookie corners are doing? Trayvon Mullen, Keisean Nixon, Isaiah Johnson — @urbanteaaa
Mullen just had the best game a Raiders corner has had all season, in my estimation. As good as any individual game Gareon Conley ever had with the Raiders. So that’s a good start. Johnson is still getting his feet wet and had a pass break up against the Bengals. He’ll get more time as the year goes on. NIxon has had eight defensive snaps all season and seven came against the Chiefs in Week 2. He’s a developmental corner and a special teams player at the moment.
Q: What impact will Preston Brown make and will Marquel Lee come off IR — @PATROLBUTTS
The Raiders have played so much nickel this season with Tahir Whitehead and Nicholas Morrow I’m curious to see how often they got to a 4-3 with Brown in the middle. Because that’s where Gruden said the Raiders will play Brown. With the clock started on Lee, he can return on Dec. 1 against Kansas City. How well Brown does this week in practice will go a long way toward determining Lee’s role this season.
Q: How do we elevate the offense for the stretch run and keep the defense making the plays it’s making? — @Jacob_Resendiz
The key for the Raiders offense is to have the offensive line dominate — there’s been an ever-so-slight dropoff in recent games against the Chargers and Bengals — and avoid penalties and negative yardage plays. Staying on schedule and in third-and-medium is the life blood of the offense and the life blood of the Raiders. As for the defense, pretty much everything Jack Del Rio and now Paul Guenther have said time after time has been dead on — pass defense is a combination of rush and coverage. And there’s no doubt since the Raiders have started to show they can get after the passer the coverage has gotten better.
Q: Real thoughts on rest of the season with #1 rushing defense coming up, along with Chiefs and potential trap games, as the offense has struggled… — @Blitzchk
I honestly don’t think the “trap game” scenario applies to these Raiders. Gruden has his team believing there is a razor thin margin for error no matter who they play. And he happens to be right. The Raiders have a negative-25 point differential. No other team with six wins has been outscored by their opponents. They don’t have “easy” games. Each game is its own entity, and my guess is they’ll all be difficult and could go either way.
Q: What is Jon doing to prepare the team for playing the Chiefs coming off yet another bye week . Raiders haven’t won in KC since 12′ season . Anything differently planned or going to try & keep the same approach from these past few weeks for it ? — @CelticRaider9
You’re looking ahead to the Chiefs. Don’t think Coach Gruden would approve. I’m pretty sure the majority of his energies are put toward winning the next game.
Q: Off the subject of the game… but, does Mark Davis have any special design plans for a new Black Hole in Allegiant Stadium, aka, The Death Star? — @macomboys
Man, I hope not. Last thing I’d want to see is some sort of commercially sponsored Vegas “Black Hole.” Hopefully it’s something that happens organically like it did in Oakland. That’s what makes it special.
Q: Mo Hurst is playing less than 50% of snaps this season. The top top defensive tackles are playing over 70%. Is this because of injury or Guenther?
Hurst has not been on the injury list. He is not a big guy — nowhere near the size of many of the guards and centers he goes head-to-head with. Guenther believes in rotating his defensive linemen, and I think he believes keeping Hurst around 50 percent maximizes his ability to shoot gaps as a three-technique and be the most effective. Johnathan Hankins leads Raiders defensvie tackles playing 64.79 percent of the snaps, followed by P.J. Hall (53.11) and the Hurst (46.30).
Q: What is evaluation of Dion Jordan — @JayJayRivera78
So far, so good. The Raiders would love to get a Darren Waller-sized surprise out of Jordan, although that’s probably being overly optimistic. The interesting thing is they had him Jordan playing over a guard, specifically because it kept the smaller Clelin Ferrell on the edge with Crosby and Benson Mayowa.
Q: With so many rookies on the roster how will they hold up the rest of the season? Any signs of them hitting the wall yet? Have the coaches been pacing them for the 20 game season? — Jim Richardson (email)
When I asked Gruden earlier in the year about “managing” Josh Jacobs I got one of his half-smile, half-sneer looks. When he was asked this week about managing the rookies, Gruden made a joke about being old and cupped his ears. He doesn’t want his young players even considering the fact that they could be tired so he’s not going to mention it. But in practice, the Raiders have been pretty smart about doing what they can to keep the rookies (and everyone else) fresh. And they’re all pretty serious about getting their rest and taking care of their bodies. The reason this class is so good, other than their own talent and dedication, is they’ve been pushed in terms of the amount of football they can learn and execute. They’ll continue to be pushed.
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