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- Mar 19, 2019
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Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden didn’t enjoy watching his team’s 43-6 loss to the Atlanta Falcons the first time around. Watching it again wasn’t any better.
“You ever go to the dentist and have to have your teeth pulled out? It’s pretty much like that,” Gruden said Monday, via Josh Dubow of the Associated Press. “This was tough, man.”
The Raiders turned the ball over five times against the Falcons. Six if you count a turnover on downs on the team’s opening possession on fourth-and-1 as well. They had 11 penalties for 141 yards and the offense managed just 243 yards against the league’s 27th ranked total defense and 31st ranked pass defense.
“Fourth-and-1 we have the ball, we go for it, we get rejected,” Gruden recounted. Next possession, first down, we take a shot with an aggressive play-action protection, sack-strip fumble. Right before the half, we’re going in for points, sack-strip fumble. Early in the third quarter, we’re in great field position, interception for a touchdown. We force a kicker to miss a field goal, we rough the kicker and they end up getting seven (points) out of that.
“There wasn’t anything pleasant about watching the tape.”
With a win over the Kansas City Chiefs earlier in the year and another really strong game against the Chiefs just a week previous, the Raiders are started to look like a genuine playoff team until the implosion in Atlanta. They still have chances to make the playoffs over the final five weeks but the loss to the Falcons wiped out a lot of their margin for error.
Las Vegas does have a chance to right the ship against the moribund New York Jets this Sunday.