Sharing the blame: Raiders move forward after Jaguars’ loss

By Case Keefer (contact)

Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022 | 2 a.m.

Davante Adams’ stance on the Raiders’ playcalling in Sunday’s 27-20 loss to the Jaguars has softened.

After a few days to reflect and revisit the floundering Raiders’ latest loss, Adams isn’t blaming anyone in particular for a second half that saw him catch only one pass for no yards. He now sees it as a collective failing where a bunch of little things went wrong by several different players to prevent him from lifting his team in crucial late-game situations.

“After looking at the tape, it’s even more so on us,” Adams said. “I don’t put anything on the coaches. I think that we’ve got to do our job but, when I looked at it, we had plenty of opportunities. There were plays there. We had six balls in a row that I couldn’t come up with for one reason or another, so at the end of the day, the plays were called. There were some good calls in there and we just didn’t come down with it.”

That’s close to a 180 from Sunday at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville when Adams criticized coach Josh McDaniels for not sticking with “what’s working” down the stretch. Adams said after the game that he was “not scared” to share his concerns publicly because he was confident in both his relationship with McDaniels and that the coach would be “receptive” to his words.

It sure seems like that’s turned out to be the case. No lingering signs of dysfunction were present as the Raiders returned to the practice field Wednesday at their Henderson headquarters for the first time in two weeks after a prolonged stay in Florida.

Las Vegas (2-6) still has a long way to go to put up a respectable season — it would likely need to win all but one of its remaining nine games to reach the playoffs — but it’s focused on doing so going into a home game at 1:05 p.m. Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts (3-5-1).

“It’s OK to be angry on Monday and Tuesday,” Carr said. “It’s OK to feel some type of way, but come Wednesday, you learn very quickly that this league changes (fast), so you have to be able to get ready to show your teammates that you’re ready to go.”

Carr declined to get as specific as Adams did last Sunday but didn’t hide his frustration in his postgame news conference and mentioned issues that needed to be addressed internally, “man to man.” On Wednesday, he said that had happened and credited McDaniels’ leadership in the whole team learning from their mistakes.

“Josh is really good at pointing them out,” Carr said. “Sometimes he points out stuff that we don’t even have to bring up and it’s addressed in the team room. Really, the main focus was for each man to look at himself and say, ‘What could you have done better in that game?’ And if you’re honest with yourself, hopefully you come out here and do it.”

That applies just as much to the coaching staff as the players, as McDaniels has readily admitted. Although McDaniels defended his game plan after the loss to the Jaguars and said the Raiders “certainly had chances in the second half to complete balls to (Adams),” he’s walked it back slightly this week.

McDaniels took Adams’ words to heart and owned up to his role in the Raiders getting shut out in the second half.

“I always think there’s areas that I could do better in,” he said. “I've stood up here before and said I've never called a perfect game, and I probably never will. I think there's a lot of things that go into that. I know what (Adams) meant when he said that, and I don't take any of those things personally.”

But Adams didn’t mean all that he said in hindsight, or at least didn’t mean it as harshly as it might have come off. He cited his own drop on the Raiders’ final drive and a missed block earlier in the game that got Carr hit as two things that had more to do with his lack of production than McDaniels’ strategic decisions.

The Raiders have enough problems on the field that they can’t risk a tiff between their most important figures further derailing the season. It doesn’t appear that’s happening right now.

They may have hit a brief rough patch after the loss, but they now believe they’re back on track.

“That’s where you can grow as a team is when you’re real with yourself and everybody takes ownership and does something about what they can control,” Adams said. “That’s what it’s really all about.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or