LAS VEGAS – There’s been a lot of lows in Raider Nation over the last 20 or so years, but Sunday’s 24-10 thrashing at the hands of the Cleveland Browns might just be the lowest low for the franchise since the infamous 2006 season.
The Raiders’ offensive line, coached by Carroll’s son Brennan, gave up an eye-popping 10 sacks in the loss. In truth, the total was almost certainly 11, but a scoring discrepancy late in the second quarter resulted in the Browns being shorted a sack on the final box score.
After Sunday’s game, Carroll sent a message to his team and insisted that better days are yet to come. Whether Carroll is in Vegas or not to see them is yet to be decided, but the recent performance suggests it isn’t likely.
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“Well, something good is just about to happen,” Carroll said. ”If you can hold onto that mentality, then you keep believing that you can turn and make things happen. That’s kind of what has guided me for all these years. I’ve never been here, but it doesn’t change. That’s the approach, that’s the outlook.”
Per usual, Raiders fans were outnumbered in their own stadium and their mishaps were met with an equal amount of cheers and boos. Carroll expressed regret that the “Dawg Pound” was able to assert such dominance in a stadium that could be populated by the most passionate fans in the NFL, but the move to Vegas combined with the franchise’s recent ineptitude has given the mostly California-based fanbase little reason to make a weekend trip to the desert.
“Yeah, it’s disappointing that they turned out a great crowd,” Carroll said. “They were loud and helping, and all of that. It’s disappointing that they walked away here so satisfied. We’re pretty disappointed about this one, but if you don’t score, you can’t win, and we couldn’t score.”
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Regarding the offensive line’s performance, Carroll gave an honest but less than encouraging assessment of the unit piloted by his son.
“Quarterback was under duress the entire time, so our ability to match up with their pass rush didn’t work out well … We tried the guys we thought had the best shot to do it. Will Putnam turned his ankle, and so Alex Cappa got in there for a little bit. We had a bunch of scheme, we had a bunch of strategy for slowing the thing down, but we couldn’t hold up, and it was really unfortunate.”
