The World Quit on the Raiders, They Didn't Quit on Themselves

An offseason that most would deem successful seemed to pay off right away when Las Vegas started the season 3-0 for the first time since the 2002 season when the Raiders last went to the Super Bowl.

The fortune would run out when Las Vegas lost its next two games. Then came the resignation of former head coach Jon Gruden.

Not long after, the Raiders would lose their best wide receiver in Henry Ruggs III when the second-year pro was released from the team after he caused a fatal car accident while driving under the influence.

Las Vegas had a promising 5-2 start heading into its bye week, but the organization was in perhaps the worst spotlight any team had been in this season.

The bye week would precede three straight losses, putting the team at .500 before Thanksgiving week.

Despite its back being up against the wall with no momentum to build off of, Las Vegas turned things back around on Thanksgiving in what was arguably the turning point of its season, both negatively and positively.

The Raiders would beat one of the NFC’s best teams in the Dallas Cowboys, but it would cost them a loss of Darren Waller, who was out until Week 18 with back and knee injuries and then COVID-19.

But as Las Vegas had done all season, it adapted to adversity and found an answer elsewhere in backup tight end Foster Moreau.

Finally, in remarkable fashion, after back-to-back losses that nearly put the Raiders out of playoff contention, the team mustered four straight victories for the first time since 2016.

Las Vegas interim coach Rich Bisaccia, who took the reins after Gruden’s departure, had the utmost amount of satisfaction in his team’s efforts this season.

“Our entire coaching staff has a great deal of pride for our team and the way in which they compete,” Bisaccia said. “That is what we try to preach every day. We try to find a way to get a little better, try to improve when the day is over.

"If we get ourselves in an overtime game again certainly somewhere in there, we improved a bit and found an opportunity to win it. Credit goes to them.”

Of course, none of the Raiders’ success would have been possible without the leadership of this season’s fifth-leading total passing yards recorder, quarterback Derek Carr.

The three-time Pro Bowler had faith in his team’s capability for the entirety of the season.

“This is a special, special group,” Carr said. “It really is. I kept saying it, and then we’d lose five out of six and everyone was like ‘Yeah, OK Derek. Good job with being optimistic again.’ I don’t know, it was just different.

"To see the joy, just to see how Coach Bisaccia led us this year, our coaching staff staying together. People had new roles and all those kinds of things.”

The Raiders’ leader on the ground, Josh Jacobs, said it was the chemistry and work ethic of the team that helped the Raiders defy the odds.

“I think we got a group of guys who genuinely care about each other,” Jacobs said. “And with all the outside noise, all the things that are going on, I feel like all the guys collectively put their head down and worked. On the inside of the building, it was almost like every outside distraction didn’t happen.”

Raiders defensive end and 2021-22 Pro Bowler Maxx Crosby said he “could talk all day” about the pride he has in his team to overcome the obstacles it has faced.

“We got guys who love football,” Crosby said. “We just got dudes with heart and [we] just kept going out there no matter how many times we had to get a stop, we just kept going.”

Wide receiver Hunter Renfrow, one of the primary assets that were asked to step up amidst the hardships Las Vegas faced this season, envisions a future where the team’s resilience pays off in the coming weeks.

“You’d like to think that everything we’ve gone through this season has brought us tighter and is gonna help us as we go on and on and on in the playoffs,” Renfrow said. “I love those guys, I’m thankful for those guys, very appreciate of them, and I couldn’t ask for a better group to play with.”

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