Rusher
Well-known member
- Mar 19, 2019
- 1,845
- 0
Getty Images
The Raiders will be fine without Antonio Brown. Unless they won’t be.
Coach Jon Gruden is singing a far different tune after three games without Brown, who was cut at his request eight days before the start of the regular season.
“We were good in the preseason without him,” Gruden said after the Raiders won their first game of the regular season without Brown. “We’re going to be fine without him.”
Two games — both losses by 18 or more points– later, Gruden now blames a sluggish offense on the departure of Brown.
“It’s caused us a little bit of . . . rethinking,” Gruden said Wednesday regarding the decision to cut Brown, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com. “When you lose your starting ‘Z,’ who arguably is a great player, I don’t think anyone’s going to dispute that you have to replace him. And we’re making an effort to move Tyrell [Williams] around, we’re bringing on some younger guys. J.J. Nelson also got hurt, don’t forget that. He was hurt. Dwayne Harris got hurt, so we’ve had some multiple things to deal with, and we’re dealing with them.”
They’re also dealing with the fact that quarterback Derek Carr isn’t getting the ball down the field the way that Gruden would like, but Gruden continues to love the one he’s with.
“I think he’s done some good things,” Gruden said regarding Carr’s performance this season. “I’m not going to put it all on Derek. We take responsibility as a playcaller. I’m calling the plays and designing some of this stuff, so I put it on myself. He’s done a good job.
“Getting stuffed on fourth and a foot isn’t his fault. He didn’t miss the blitz pickup in the red zone. We had a ball that could have been caught, could have set up points at the end of the half. He’s doing some good things. I’m not going to sit here and say that we’re a finished product yet. We’ve gone through a lot of change through the first three weeks, and we played two really good teams, actually, three really good defenses in back-to-back weeks.”
Carr has completed 73.5-percent of his passes, but he has three interceptions against four touchdown passes. He’s averaging 233 yards per game, putting him 24th among all quarterbacks.
It gets no easier this week with a trip to Indianapolis, but Gruden surely will continue to have excuses and explanations if things continue to go not as well as expected, defending his starting quarterback right up until the point when Gruden can find a potentially better one in the offseason.