The Las Vegas Raiders’ wayward debut season under head coach Josh McDaniels concluded on an expected sour note, trailing the Kansas City Chiefs to a 31-13 defeat at Allegiant Stadium.
Fans of the Silver and Black who were hoping for a stirring repeat performance from newly-minted starting QB Jarrett Stidham were similarly disappointed.
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Go deeper: The Raiders largely wrote off the final two games of the season when they opted to bench longtime quarterback Derek Carr to preserve trade capital and avoid triggering contract guarantees if he were to be injured.
- In the wake of the move, a surprisingly close 37-34 overtime defeat against the San Francisco 49ers on New Year’s Day eliminated the Raiders from playoff contention.
By the numbers: Stidham fell back to earth after his New Year’s Day starting debut, throwing for only 219 yards on the day against the Chiefs and was sacked six times.
- The Raiders’ three top receiving weapons – wide receivers Davante Adams and Hunter Renfrow, and tight end Darren Waller – combined for only 14 receptions and a single touchdown against Kansas City on Sunday.
What they’re saying: McDaniels didn’t sugarcoat the brutal ending to an equally brutal season for the Silver and Black.
- “There’s a lot of reasons why you win and lose. Today wasn’t a really close game, but we obviously have played in a lot of them. … You win in this league when you earn it. That’s through performance and work. We all can do something better – some of us maybe more than others. I’ll start with myself and our staff and try to do everything we can do better as we go into the offseason and next year. Same thing with how we play,” McDaniels said.
- “We’re going to be hard at work. We know what we want to do and what we want to accomplish. We didn’t come here to just go through it. That’s not our intentions. We knew when we came here there was going to be a process involved. I know people get sick and tired of hearing that word, but that’s the reality. There’s work involved. There’s time. There’s decisions and evaluations that need to be made and that’s what we’re going to do,” McDaniels said about the upcoming off-season and prospective moves for the Raiders organization.
