It's difficult to envision the Las Vegas Raiders enduring a much more gut-wrenching defeat than the 29-23 comeback they suffered at the hands of Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals. After a dominant first half that saw the Raiders lead 20-0, and after leading by 23-7 as late as eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Raiders were unable to capitalize on the momentum they built and allowed the Cardinals to inch closer, and later on take the game in overtime, through fourth down conversions. But team captain Mack Hollins is making sure that the team doesn't get too demoralized in the aftermath of the loss.
According to Vincent Bonsignore of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Mack Hollins imposed a mandate on the Raiders locker room after Monday's film session forced the squad to relive the painful nature of the defeat.
“Of course it stings. [But] when the film is over, the boohooing and feeling bad for yourself, or whatever people are doing, or feeling mad at yourself, that’s gotta finish,” Hollins declared.
In a game played by professionals at the highest level, players cannot dwell too much on the what-ifs, lest they run the risk of letting it affect their performance. After all, their loss to the Cardinals, no matter how dispiriting, only counts as one on the loss column, and Mack Hollins knows that they have 15 more games in the season to learn from their mistakes, hopefully without pressing the issue too much.
“If it consumes anybody longer than 5 p.m. today, then it’s consuming them too long,” Hollins added. “That doesn’t mean they forget about it. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know that it happened, that you shouldn’t learn from it. But for it to be this overpowering ‘we’ve got to fix this problem. We gotta win’ and you get blinded in your preparation for the next opponent, that’s when it turns bad.”
“You need to clear your mind and be prepared to take on a whole bunch of new information on the [Tennessee] Titans.”
The Las Vegas Raiders will have to wait until Sunday to put their mental and emotional fortitude to the test against the Titans but with Mack Hollins reeling in his team and making sure they all remain even-keeled heading into the next gameweek, Raiders fans will hope that they can make the requisite adjustments so they can finish the job next time around.
Follow Us
Subscribe