The Raiders Season Hangs In The Balance After Week 3 Meltdown (Panthers Game Breakdown)

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back. Another beautiful Monday mid-afternoon. Just a privilege to be alive, you know? You gotta remind yourself that there are more important things than football. Even though sometimes a game like Raiders Panthers could ruin an entire week's worth of living. And my name is Rodney. If you already knew that, thank you so much for coming back and watching another stream. Live here on Bleacher Report. We do these every Monday, 1 p.m. Eastern, where we recap that nonsense. And okay, look. Right off the bat, and we're gonna do a poll. And this is gonna be a little bit of a different poll to start this stream. And I'm gonna be reading the comments as they flow. And we're gonna break down the game quarter by quarter. Should be pretty easy. We're gonna talk about who's to blame. And we're gonna talk about everything. I made a video yesterday on YouTube. It's down right, you can see it right here. YouTube.com backslash All Aboard Raiders. Go check me out on there. And I was a little heated, and I came at some people. Some offensive coordinators, some coaches, some players. There's a lot of blame to go around. But I didn't start out angry at this game. And the reason is because I don't think I was surprised. And I'm curious, as I sent out this notification. Was the nation, were the people watching this game surprised by the outcome? Because on my YouTube channel this past week, I made a video where I listed all the times that we played games like this, we being the Raiders. Games like this being games against backup quarterbacks who weren't even starting when the coin flip happened for kickoff. Teams like the Rams, who started Baker Mayfield halfway through, which we lost to. Teams like the Colts, who started Matt Ryan and Jeff Saturday was their interim head coach. You could go all the way back to Ryan Fitzpatrick coming in the game for Tuatunga-Vailoa. FaceMask, Hail Mary, we lose, game losing field goal. There are games that the Raiders seem to play like this, that they lose all the time. So when I put out this poll, and right now 100% of the people that are watching this stream are telling me that they are not surprised by the outcome of this game. That should tell you all you need to know about what the Raiders fans have been dealing with the past two decades. And as I pull up the box score here, let's pull up the box score. And we'll get into the specifics here. Week three, box score, okay. As we look at the box score, here's the problem with this game. Obviously there's a million problems and we're gonna get into blame, and we're gonna get into Minshew and all of it. And vote in that poll, because right now the fact that 100% of you are saying that you're not surprised, again, that is extremely telling. You know, you could look at the box score and you could point to time of possession. You could point to the rushing yards, right? You could point to Andy Dolan being the first quarterback all season that's thrown for 300 yards and three touchdowns. Here's the problem with this game. Sometimes when you bring in a backup quarterback, quote unquote, even though Andy Dolan is clearly the starting quarterback of this team, when you bring guys like that in or you make a coaching change, there's a spark, there's a vibe to the team. They're gonna come out and they're gonna play with their hair on fire. And Andy Dolan did that, and he made some throws that the 85 Bears wouldn't stop, right? Sometimes you gotta tip your cap. Here's the problem. Are we 100% sure, and I wanna see this in the comments section, are we 100% sure that we would've won this game if Bryce Young was the starting quarterback? Because Andy Dolan could've came out here and laid an egg and they only scored 10 points. We had seven points going into the fourth quarter, and we were lucky to have those seven points because Gardner meant you stepped out of bounds before he got that first down on the scramble. We didn't give them enough time to challenge it, and we scored a touchdown. We were lucky to have seven points going into the fourth quarter. So I ask you, if Bryce Young plays this game, are we guaranteed to have won it? I don't know if I have the answer for that, and that is a problem. That is a problem, and I see comments flying fast and furious. Our D line wasn't getting pressure. See, that would've helped Bryce Young. Our offensive line was terrible. We lost both trenches bad as we would've lost either way. See, played washed up Dalton to prove Young is trash, I guess. A lot of people are saying, no, we still would've lost the game. I saw some people calling for Gardner Minshew to be benched. Stubborn play calling, yeah. I think Bryce would've made it interesting we had no energy, played as flat as I've seen in a while. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy to think that I really don't know if we would've won this game if Bryce Young was the quarterback, which is a glaring issue. 86%, does that say, I can't read. Over 85%, 86, 88. Close to 90% of the people watching this were not surprised by the outcome of this football game. And the final score is 36 to 22, and it wasn't that close. We scored a couple garbage time touchdowns, even through a garbage time interception. But if we go through this box score here and we break these things down, I mean, again, the glaring issue here is the run game. I mean, if you look at the rushing yards, it's a problem. 55, and Gardiner-Midget had like a 10-yard scramble. So our running backs had 45 yards, that's a problem. And I've seen a lot of blame thrown Luke Etsy's way. And I get it, and we'll talk about the blame. I do think it's very difficult to call a game when you literally cannot run the football. It's really tough on any offensive coordinator. You gotta be Andy Reid to be able to call a game where you just passed the ball. And I know, Luke Etsy is responsible for the zone blocking scheme. And AP said, if schematically we gotta change, then we gotta change. Okay, let's change it then. The zone blocking scheme doesn't work for this team. It doesn't work for Zemir White. It doesn't work for Alexander Madison. Let's go back to power running. Let's scrap it and start over from the ground with the running game. And if it doesn't work next week, it doesn't matter because it's not working thus far. So whatever you've built up through the whole offseason, it's not working. So let's change it schematically. Look, we can go quarter by quarter. There's really not much to say. Andy Dolan came out with his hair on fire. Then I'm not making a joke about the color of his hair. He's a good looking guy, no problem with that. He came out with his hair on fire. They went right down the field and scored. We matched him with Trey Tucker, big play. Again, Minshew scrambled. He did his thing for a little. But then it happened fast, man. Max Crosby, he was not 100%. He wasn't 50%. He was on one leg. We lost Koontz for the year. Tyree Wilson is basically a non-factor. Christian Wilkins made a little bit of a difference. But when Max doesn't need to be double teamed, you can just double team Wilkins. The secondary was not great. It was just a nightmare from the start, man. Epps goes down and the defense was bad and there's no doubt about it. But I wanna bring something up here. I wanna pull this picture up. This is a drive chart and I'm gonna end this poll right now. 91% of you say you were not surprised by the outcome of this game, which is insane, but I agree. I wasn't that surprised and the defense was terrible. I understand that and we're gonna close this poll and get rid of it so we can see better here. But we need to take into account what the defense has been dealing with. Not only this game, but through 11 of 12 quarters. And we'll go back to that 11 of 12 quarters in a second. These were the second and quarter drives by the Raiders offense. You've got four three and outs, two four and outs, and one five and out. The longest drive being two minutes and 35 seconds. How in the world is a defense supposed to consistently play top notch when their leader is on one leg and every other minute of game time they are going out on the field? This was literally every single drive of the second and third quarter. That is an absolute embarrassment. You can't run the ball and you've got poor quarterback play, poor. The defense, every single game has kept us in it. And this was the first game where the offense needed to just find a way to pick the defense up. Because right now, if there's anybody to blame, it's the offense for how bad this season has gone. And for 11 quarters, this is a bad football team. It's been a bad football team. After that Ravens game, with the last quarter being the quarter where everything finally clicked, the Raiders fans, Raider Nation was at a crossroads. You could choose to believe that that last quarter is what we were closer to, right? Because that was the most recent thing we had seen. Or you could choose to believe that we are more like the team that's played poorly for seven of the first eight quarters. And right now, we are way closer to the team that's played poorly for seven quarters, rather than that one quarter where everything clicked. I see people in the chat, we got, Minshew was missing some easy throws. The same throws Dallin was making, Minshew wasn't. Offense is led by the quarterback. AP coaches the same preseason and regular season. Yeah, it's not great. By not blitzing safeties, leaving linebackers to cover grass. Yeah, the linebackers weren't great. I mean, we were missing Devon Diablo. It was just an absolute problem. And I mean, let's just talk about it right now. Who's to blame for this game? And I'm going all coaching, and it's top to bottom. It's AP, it's Getze, it's Graham, it's everybody. Who are we blaming for this game? I know it's probably going to go toward the offensive side of the football, and I don't disagree with that. But oh boy, I mean, we were outcoached by a first-year head coach. We were out-schemed, we were out-worked. It was just a top-to-bottom mess. It was a massacre, it was a blowout. And again, if you would have told me that we lost this game, okay, it's the National Football League. You look at their team, Troupa Hover, Deontay Johnson, Adam Thielen, this Leggett kid who runs like a 4'1". They've got athletes. Andy Dolan is a pro bowler. He's played in big games in the playoffs. They have athletes. If you would have told me we lost, okay, we lost. 30-7 going into the fourth quarter. 30-7. I feel like I've talked a lot about, you know, Patrick Graham here. I don't think the defense lost us this game. I know they went up and down the field, but again, the offense has to find a way to give the defense a break, especially when we are reeling with injuries. And I know it's hard to consistently chew the clock when you can't run the football, but that's how Luke gets you to be like, all right, we gotta stop. And Antonio Pierce has said in multiple press conferences, we're gonna run the ball no matter what. We're gonna establish the run, and we're gonna establish the run. We can't right now. For whatever reason, we can't. Is it the offensive line? Is it the mirror white? Is it the blocking scheme? Whatever it is, they gotta pinpoint that. That's their job. My job is to tell you what I saw with my own eyes. We can't run the football. So we gotta do swing passes and short route concepts to continue the clock moving and to get three, four yards a pop, because right now the offense cannot run the football. Here's the problem, though, with running quick drop back, make a decision, tight window reads. Gardner Minshew can't do that. He just can't. Gardner Minshew, for 11 quarters, has been terrible. Not good, not bad, awful. And look, it's not entirely his fault, but Gardner Minshew is not the quarterback that's gonna rise to the occasion to minimize the flaws of a football team who's got a lot of them right now, especially a defense that's reeling and a run game that's nonexistent. Gardner Minshew is not the guy that's going to take us above what our expectations are if we can't do these baseline things like run the football. And I see there's a lot of Lucchetti, there's a lot of AP, there's a little Petrogram, it's all of the above. I agree, it's all of the above here with this bull. And yes, the offensive line was, again, not great. But I'm gonna end this poll here, and we're gonna land on all the above, and we're gonna get into the quarterback play because I personally do believe it's time for Aiden O'Connell. And I understand by saying that, some people might think I'm saying Aiden O'Connell's gonna save the season. Aiden O'Connell's gonna be leaps and bounds better than Gardner Minshew. I do think he will be the better option. But here's the thing. The quarterback play, the offense, cannot look worse. It can't look worse. So why would you continue to do the same thing? And here's the epiphany I had last night. And I see Keeping God First says, with this O line, you would start AOC. Yes, I would. It's twofold. Number one, Gardner Minshew is not escaping the pocket to be the quarterback to be behind this offensive line to make them look better. Gardner Minshew is not the guy to evade this pressure. He's still getting sacked. The reason why you go with the quarterback like Aiden O'Connell is because he, for whatever reason, has the ability more than Gardner Minshew to step back, hike the ball, and immediately make a decision. The reason why Gardner Minshew's getting sacked as much as he is, is not only because the offensive line is so bad, but because he's not making quick decisions. You need to get the football out of your hand in under two seconds with a good offensive line. With a bad offensive line, you need a quarterback that's going to let it rip immediately. And Aiden O'Connell will be able to be protected better because he will throw the ball faster. That's what we're not understanding here. That's what I feel like is missing with a lot of the people that are saying, with this offensive line, you're gonna throw a quarterback out there who's not mobile? Yes, because that quarterback can get the ball out quicker. There will be less sacks. Because Aiden has zip on his ball and can throw the ball in the face of pressure. And if he goes out there against the Browns, Aiden O'Connell, and as I talk about Aiden versus Gardner, we're going to throw this poll out because I put it in week one, and Minshew won it, and now I'm gonna do it in week three. The reason why I believe Aiden's the guy, and I'm waiting for this poll to be pinned, where is it? Hello, I can't see it. Pin, pin the ball, okay. The reason why I believe Aiden is now the guy is because he's clearly the more accurate passer with the stronger arm that does not hold onto the ball as long. And like I was saying, before I got sidetracked by the poll, if Aiden goes out there and doesn't play well against Cleveland, then what's the difference? Weeks one to three, then to week four. Why would you continue to put out the veteran that clearly isn't the guy? The reason you start Aiden is because he's younger and you see what you have. And if he stinks and we lose a bunch of football games, then you play the younger kid and then you draft your franchise quarterback. But you can't continue to throw Gardner Minshew out there claiming the reason he's in the game is because he's mobile and because our offensive line is bad, and he continues to get sacked because he holds onto the football too long and doesn't get rid of it. Gardner Minshew in garbage time through an interception. He has zero anticipation for the routes that are being run and he holds onto the ball way too long. The difference between Gardner Minshew and Aiden O'Connell is that Gardner Minshew waits until people are open to throw the football. Aiden O'Connell throws people open. Aiden O'Connell throws the ball where the people, the receivers are supposed to be. The reason why Devante has so many drops and some of them are drops, but the reason why Devante's catching the ball and the cornerbacks are there in time to hit the ball out of the receivers' hands is because he's breaking off of his route and then Gardner Minshew's throwing him the ball, giving the cornerback enough time to make a play. If Aiden O'Connell was in the game and he did this in the preseason against the Vikings with Jacoby Myers, go watch the film. The All-22 is out there. The reason Aiden O'Connell is better is because he throws the ball before the receivers break, which gives the cornerback not enough time to make a play on the football, which is why you see Devante Adams dropping the ball 10 times more than you did with Aiden rather than Gardner. And Gardner threw a garbage time pick and Aiden threw a garbage time touchdown. Doesn't matter, it's garbage time. But on that touchdown pass, Aiden did the thing that Gardner was supposed to do. He rolled out of the pocket, pressure in his face, they blitched him so it wasn't just prevent defense. He threw the ball only where Trae Tucker could catch it and it was a touchdown. And here's, I think I mentioned it, and Aiden O'Connell's blowing Minchin out of the water. And as I read, what if AFC struggles? Am I going back to Gardner? No, I'm not going back to Gardner because we know what Gardner is. If Aiden struggles, it's the same thing as Gardner struggling. I would just rather play the more accurate passer with the stronger arm. And if Aiden struggles, then we gotta draft a quarterback. But we need to know right now if Aiden can continue some of the success we had last year. Because they waited until week nine to start Aiden and it was too late. We were three and five, it was too late. What if Aiden O'Connell played in that Bears game against Brian Hoyer? Or that Lions game instead of Jimmy Garoppolo? Would we be five and three last year and won two more games? Because Jimmy Garoppolo lost us some games last year. And here's the ultimate reason why I think you have to go with Aiden. And this is what I'm asking the chat right now. I want you to put your thinking cap on, chat, okay? Is Gardner Minchin playing better, worse, or the same as Jimmy Garoppolo was playing last year? That's the question I have and I wanna see people in the chat answer that question honestly. Because if you think he's playing better, be honest and tell me why. Is Gardner Minshew playing better than Jimmy Garoppolo last year? He is playing worse. That's the first thing I see is he's playing worse, worse. Okay, if Gardner Minshew is playing worse or if he's playing around the same, how can you justify having Aiden O'Connell on the bench when last year you benched Jimmy Garoppolo for Aiden O'Connell? AP, I'm talking right to you, bro. Because if the quarterback position right now is the same as it was last year pre-Aiden, how can you justify Aiden sitting on the bench? Because Aiden was the guy who came in and put up 49 points against the Chargers. Aiden was the guy who came in and threw three touchdowns against the Denver Broncos, who threw eight touchdowns and one interception in his last four games. Gardner Minshew is not playing better, significantly enough, more so than Jimmy Garoppolo was last year. So I see some people saying Gardner over Garoppolo, Jimmy threw downfield incomplete, sometimes got a PI, no playing the same. Better stats than Jimmy, but the result is worse. So, okay, again, there is some logic going on with the coaching staff when it comes, yeah, there is some weird logic. Because again, Vinny Monsignor, who's a great beat reporter for the Raiders, asked AP, you know, Aiden was in the game at the end there, was there anything to that? Is there on the table to maybe go forward with Aiden? And AP said, ah, well, the game was kind of out of hand, and there was quarterbacks battling, you know, all offseason, so we just threw him out there to see what he could do. I don't understand, like, oh, the game's out of hand, so we put in Aiden. The game was out of hand because your offense was terrible. And the leader of that offense is not making any plays. Like, zero. There are no plays where Gardner hikes the football, takes two steps back, and throws a laser into a tight window. There's nothing through 11 quarters. Nothing. And I don't understand it. I don't understand it. Gardner has been throwing some ducks that had zero velocity, looked like pain toward the end of his career in Denver. Start O'Connell, Ben Samir, play Abdullah, more honest. Just run out of the shotgun. I don't know, man. Yeah, look, and again, I'm not claiming that Aiden O'Connell is going to save the season. I'm not even claiming that he did that last year. But I will say last year, Aiden O'Connell kind of steadied the ship, and Aiden O'Connell is a big reason why Antonio Pierce had success last season, and it's a big reason why he has the job. And I was ready by halftime to start him, and I don't understand why it's like, oh, the game was out of hand, and that's why we put Aiden in. The quarterback play by Gardner Minchie was just not good enough. And you could see by one garbage time drive that Aiden's just got more velocity, and he's a better, accurate passer, and he makes better decisions. So I think the time is now to just throw him in there and see what you got, because the offense can't get worse. It cannot get worse. The Panthers' defense is not good. We had seven points. We were lucky to have seven. Aiden O'Connell is a better quarterback. They should not be swapping him with Minchie. Minchie's not the answer. Yes, he beat us last year, but he's definitely not the answer. I've been saying that from the beginning. AOC lets me watch a whole Raider game. Fun to watch. But at this point, might as well switch quarterbacks. Any change is better. And I saw, I saw, where was it? Compare offensive lines, says MMcBride58. The offensive line last year was around the same as it was this year. We struggled to run the ball with Josh Jacobs in the game last year. There were games where we couldn't run the ball and Aiden O'Connell had to make some plays. And if there was any bright spots in this game to talk about, which I'll save to the end here, because there's really not much to say, Trey Tucker looks like a stud. He's not dropping any passes. He's taking the top off in defense. Aiden O'Connell has better chemistry with all these guys, too. That's a good point, Angel. Trey Tucker, again, was a bright spot. And DJ Glaze had to come in because Theron Mumford, our right tackle, went down and looked okay. For a third round pick, he looked like he could hold his own and maybe we gotta get some DJ Glaze minutes in there. When the bullets are live, I want Aiden. That's a Devontae Adams quote. Is that a for-sure Devontae Adams quote? I mean, the whole offseason, every interview Devontae did for the receiver doc, he was going to bat for Aiden and he all but endorsed him. And when you ask Devontae what the problem is in the offense, he said it was the rhythm. And I think that's a cryptic way for him to say the quarterback play isn't good enough. Yeah, I mean, Alex says he totally wasn't excited about it. He seemed to announce Gardner was the starter while clenching his teeth. And when AP announced that Gardner was the starter, it sucked the air right out of the room. The reporters didn't know what to say. All the questions they had were going to be for, oh, Aiden's the starter. What do we see from a starter that gives him the job? And when he named him the starter, that was shocking. And I think it was objectively the wrong move and I'm no longer going to be supporting that decision. I'm going to be rooting for Aiden, or sorry, I'm going to be rooting for Gardner and rooting for AP and rooting for my football team, but I'm not supporting that decision anymore. And every bad play he makes, I hope it's one step closer to Aiden getting a shot. Because again, and Willie, I agree with you. If you go with Aiden, you can't go back to Minshew. I agree wholeheartedly. And if the offense looks bad, then oh, well, it looks bad. It's been looking bad for three weeks. So why would you continue to do the same thing, right? Definition of insanity. So the last thing I will ask everybody, and I'm going to end this poll, 85% say it's time for Aiden O'Connell. I couldn't agree more. Last thing I'll ask you guys is, do you foresee Aiden O'Connell starting week four? Yes or no? I don't see it happening. I think they're going to give Gardner the first four games because that's what I've been saying since day one, because AP looks at the season in quarters. There's four games in a quarter. And I said, if we go one in three or worse, they'll pull the trigger. I think they're going to give him this one last game because we're playing a Browns team that's not very good. They just lost to Daniel Jones and the Giants. Right now, everyone's saying they don't see Aiden starting next week, which is a shame, but I agree. I don't see him starting either. We'll see what AP says in the presser today. I'm sure he'll be live in about an hour. And, you know, look, there is a bit of a double standard here in terms of quarterback, because I've seen AP bench defensive guys instantly, like Marcus Peters last year, Divine Diablo this year. I've seen him bench linemen. I've seen him take Cody Whitehair out for Pete and out for JPJ. What's the difference? Is it because they don't have a rhythm with Aiden? Because they played with him last year. The problem here is that we were talking about the better player between Minchu and O'Connell. That is the problem. And again, I don't disagree with you. I don't disagree with you, but the problem that we can solve right now is that there's a quarterback on the roster last year that showed signs of life. And there's a quarterback that's proven right now that he's not great and he can't make the quick, accurate decisions. And I know the offensive line is bad and Aiden might be susceptible to get sacked more, but he also might be able to protect a bad offensive line by getting the ball out of his hands quickly. And again, if he comes in against Cleveland and stinks up the joint, what's the difference? What's the difference? Because through 11 quarters, we've been terrible. So, a lot of people are saying that they don't see Aiden starting, and I agree. I don't know if he started this week. I think we would have won, but I think we would have had more than seven points. That's really the question you have to ask. Close your eyes and imagine Aiden playing the games against the Chargers week one and against the Panthers this week. Do we have more than 10 points in week one? Do we have more than seven points going into the fourth quarter? I think the answer is a definitive yes. And that's really all I got to say about the Aiden stuff. Ben Johnson, Clint Kubiak are available. I'll tell you what, I don't want to fire Antonio Pierce, but I did kind of want Ben Johnson last year. And if things go super south, maybe break the bank, give Ben Johnson head coach money to be our offensive coordinator. If Luke Getzey's not the guy either, Clint Kubiak too. You got to poach somebody if Getzey's not the guy. And again, I'm not going to blame it all on Getzey. It's three games. We don't have a running game. We'll see how we progress. You know, but for right now, it's not great. And I think a change needs to be made. And I think the quarterback is a good place to start. So thank you guys so much for watching. If you like what you're seeing here and you're not yet subscribed to my YouTube channel, go ahead on over to all the boarders on YouTube. I will be back next week to talk about hopefully a W, although right now I don't see that happening against the Cleveland Browns, same time. And then I'll be back in October, which I just found out. Thank you so much for Bleach Report for having me on and continuing to work with me. This has been a blast. Don't let this ruin your week, guys. It's just a football game. Thank you so much for watching. I love you guys, and I'll see you next time.