The jokes were brutal and all saying the same thing: Pete Carroll looked every bit his 74 years after the Cowboys worked the Raiders on Monday night.
Social media quickly compared the new Las Vegas head coach to Joe Biden, framing him as an exhausted leader presiding over a team drifting nowhere fast. At 2-8 with four straight losses and an offense that’s completely out of sync, the Raiders’ season has gone from hopeful to bleak in a hurry.
The postgame tone didn’t change that perception. In his comments after the 33-16 defeat, Carroll sounded more defeated than defiant, admitting he had few answers for what went wrong, per NBC Sports.
He said he expected the defense to hold up much better and admitted he was “really disappointed” they couldn’t get more stops during a stretch where Dallas scored touchdowns on four straight possessions.
Calling it “a very difficult night for us,” he even apologized and said he “felt bad” about the performance, the kind of language that rarely inspires confidence in a turnaround.
For a coach who preached establishing the run from the moment he arrived, the box score was damning. The Raiders threw for 236 yards but managed just 27 on the ground, essentially abandoning their supposed offensive identity.
Carroll downplayed concerns about offensive balance in the short term, but that is exactly what has been missing all year. Las Vegas has not done enough of anything in his first season, and the gap between what he promised and what the product looks like is growing wider by the week.
The strange usage of rookie running back Ashton Jeanty only sharpened that criticism. The No. 6 overall pick finished with six carries for seven yards and again watched the game tilt toward a pass-heavy script that does not help him or the offense.
After the loss, Jeanty also kept his frustration measured, saying he just takes whatever opportunities he gets and leans on faith as he tries to push through a season that has not gone as planned.
When your head coach sounds apologetic, your rookie star back is barely involved, and you are 2-8 with no clear identity, it is easy to see why the jokes are landing. Right now, the Raiders look less like a Carroll revival project and more like a worn-out act searching for answers it lacks.
