Pete Carroll has never lacked optimism.
So, in his mind, it was a given the lessons he was teaching the Raiders would click immediately.
No, the team’s first-year coach was not thinking Super Bowl. He knew his roster needed plenty of help. But he thought the winning habits he stressed could take root right away. Or at least stick enough to help the Raiders (2-7) keep their heads above water and play important games down the stretch.
It turns out Carroll’s optimism was misplaced. The Raiders, who have just two winning seasons the past 22 years and are on their fourth full-time coach since moving to Las Vegas, were facing more of an uphill climb than he imagined.
Decades of bad decisions couldn’t be undone in 11 months, even by one of only three coaches in history with a college national championship and Super Bowl title on his resume.
Carroll’s first nine games in charge have landed him exactly where so many of his predecessors ended up. Shocked by a poor start he didn’t see coming and scrambling for answers.
“How do I handle it?” Carroll said. “Not very well. It’s been crappy.”
Coming to grips
It’s not just the losing.
It’s the myriad of mental and physical mistakes that have cost the Raiders in so many of their losses this season. Those lapses were uncharacteristic of Carroll’s Seahawks teams, which made the playoffs in 10 of his 14 years in charge.
Carroll, 74, at least believed his influence would help the Raiders play solid situation football.
He was wrong.
“This is not what I expected to happen,” Carroll said. “I didn’t feel that we would be this far behind at the start of the season.”
Now what?
Carroll, despite the lack of progress, remains steadfast in his teaching principles. He will continue to drive them home for the Raiders’ last eight games.
The hope is that even if the team doesn’t achieve its goals this season, a strong finish can set them up well for the seasons to come.
“We’re just trying to keep driving the messages home and trying to get better each week and do some things that we can build from,” Carroll said.
This year still serves as a major shock to his system. The Raiders are 31st in scoring offense (15.4 points per game), tied for 22nd in scoring defense (24.4 points allowed per game) and have struggled so much on special teams that coordinator Tom McMahon was fired Nov. 7.
They have a long way to go before becoming the kind of team Carroll has had before.
“I’m not very well-versed in being in this situation,” Carroll said. “But I don’t like it one bit. And it’s been hard.”
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal. com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.
