There’s no crushing disappointment in team sports quite like a flop in the opening game of an NFL season.
All the buildup and optimism, especially when your team has a new head coach, then boom, you’ve blown one-16th of your season, and your coach’s 10-year contract looks like a witch’s curse.
Walking out of the Coliseum early Tuesday morning after the Rams beat the Raiders 33-13, I heard buzz from semi-inside people about the Raiders blowing it all up. You know, trading Derek Carr, doing a major rebuild. They’ve already launched that project by trading Khalil Mack, right?
Why not rebuild the Raiders in Jon Gruden’s image and have it up and humming in two years when the Raiders storm into their Las Vegas PlunderDome?
Working against that theory/rumor: Gruden, far from desperate for a job, said he took this gig in no small part because of Carr, a quarterback who could be Gruden’s robot on the field.
That’s how it worked in the first half Monday. Then, who knows, maybe Carr’s circuit board overloaded. It was his first real game action under Gruden. A mini-meltdown is no crime.
Still, it was a shaky start for the New Deal. Gruden trades Mack, rips the high-character player for wanting a market-value salary, throws general manager Reggie McKenzie under the bus, unveils an offense that can’t find the best receiver (Amari Cooper) or best runner ( Marshawn Lynch), and trots out a team that commits 10 penalties in the first half. Too many of them were not sloppy penalties, but penalties of desperation — tackling someone you can’t block, karate-chopping a receiver you can’t cover.
But hey, it was one game. Against a really good opponent.
Receiver Jordy Nelson said, “We’ll look at the film, make the adjustments we need to make and … get ready for Denver.”
Yeah. The Broncos (1-0) watch film, too, and also make adjustments.
Gruden and the fellas might be able to look back on Week 1 and laugh at the silly overreaction by the rabble stricken with First Week Fever.
But in the collective mind of that rabble, Plan B — Operation Vegas Storm — remains in play.
Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @scottostler
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