The Las Vegas Raiders got rocked by the L.A. Chargers, 28-14 on Monday Night Football, but it was outside factors surrounding the game that got a lot of attention as well. If you ask Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, the weather delay that pushed the opening kickoff back by 35 minutes and the maze-like locker room at SoFi stadium was too much for Chucky to handle.
“I’ve never had an indoor stadium with a lightning delay,” Gruden told reporters after the game.
At some point, I’m sure coach Gruden has experienced some type of weather delay in all his years of coaching. Yes, the fact that it happened at an indoor stadium is a bit odd. But SoFi is classified as an open-air stadium since the sides of it are open. Here you go, coach, an explanation on the stadium.
Gruden was also perplexed by the layout of the visitor’s locker room in the lavish new stadium.
“You know, the locker room here is the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “You can’t see anybody. It’s like a maze.
“So, you know, whoever contorted this visiting locker room, I’d like to meet this guy and see what his, um, what his idea was.”
I’m sure it was the bizarre locker room setup that caused the Raiders to net-zero total yards in the first 15 minutes of play. The Raiders went an entire quarter without gaining one yard. Zero points, zero yards in the first quarter are embarrassing. It’s even more problematic when your coach is considered some quarterback guru, an offensive mastermind, yet can’t figure out how to get his team moving forward for a full quarter of football.
Now, that’s perplexing.
Sure, players need to execute plays, but the coaching staff needs to find a way to put those players in the proper positions in order to execute. Gruden and his staff absolutely failed to do this in the first quarter on Monday night.
The Chargers also shut out the Raiders in the first half of this game. The final tally for Las Vegas was 213 total yards of offense. That really came over three quarters. I wouldn’t even call that pedestrian. I’d say it’s pretty damn pathetic. Especially after the way the Raiders had rolled along over the first three weeks of the season. Much credit should be given to the Chargers and their defense, but Gruden’s got a lot of blame coming his way.
The Raiders did manage to fight back in the second half to add a little intrigue for about half a quarter, but overall, this was just an off night for Gruden and his crew. They could barely get Darren Waller involved, and once the Raiders finally did, he was flagged for a silly taunting penalty. We get it already; you’re the No Fun League. Let’s get on with our lives and end this madness.
Hopefully, Raiders fans aren’t about to witness another downward spiral like we’ve seen in the past from this team after getting off to a hot start. The Raiders will be back home in Las Vegas in Week 5, facing the Chicago Bears. Luckily for Gruden, he won’t need to worry about any crazy new locker room design or funky weather delays.
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