The Raiders flopped in Kansas City on Sunday as they spotted the Chiefs a 26-0 lead before getting on the scoreboard a couple of times in the fourth quarter.
They cut the lead to 11 points, but couldn’t get any closer and the failure to start the game with the proper energy level was on coach Jack Del Rio’s mind when he spoke to the media on Monday. Del Rio called himself “frustrated and pissed off” about the way the team played and called on them to take a more aggressive approach against the Cowboys next Sunday night.
“I think that there have been many examples throughout the season where we have not played boldly to go make the plays,” Del Rio said, via the San Jose Mercury News. “I would really like to see that ... if you go halfway, it’s not good enough anyway. So I’d love to just see us just let it rip, OK, and go play. Talked about hair on fire, talked about the kind of effort and energy, playing fast, that’s what I believe in -- and I’d love to see it more often.”
The loss to the Chiefs means that winning out guarantees the Raiders nothing other than a 9-7 record at the end of the year and anything less than that will make the playoffs a fantasy. That’s an urgent situation, so we’ll see if the team finds the requisite urgency to deal with it.