Raiders head coach Jon Gruden has been spending a lot of time talking about how players who aren’t currently on the Raiders want to play for the team in the future, which suggests he’s turned his attention away from caring too deeply about the results on the field for the rest of this season.
Given the team’s four straight losses by at least 14 points, some may be thinking that the team’s current players have done the same thing. After Thursday night’s 34-3 49ers win, Joe Fann of the 49ers website reported that an unnamed 49ers player said the Raiders “quit early.”
Players on the Oakland side disputed that notion. Defensive end Frostee Rucker said “no one is packing it in” and tight end Jared Cook shared a similar sentiment.
“I never quit. I never gave up,” Cook said, via the East Bay Times. “It’s a frustrating thing to be sitting on the record you have, be going through some of the things we’re going through as an offense and still not being able to put points on the board. It’s definitely frustrating because we know the talent we have in this room is way better than that and way better than what we portray on the field.”
Cook’s view on the talent level in Oakland probably won’t find much outside support, especially if this is what the Raiders look like when they’re giving it 100 percent.