Graney: Embarrassing loss signals Raiders should clean house

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — What an unmitigated disaster.

The Raiders on Sunday began their afternoon congregating at midfield of Arrowhead Stadium, kickoff against the Chiefs minutes away, and had a grand old time stomping up and down on the home-field logo.

Yeah. They poked the bear, the Raiders a bad team trying to convince itself that it’s any good.

Then they played one of the worst halves in franchise history.

It was 35-3 at intermission and, long before that, thoughts of blowing up the entire mess more than seeped into the picture.

Offered one press box scribe: “Fire ‘em all.”

Kansas City won 48-9. The second half was played because rules demanded it.

“It would be a great excuse to tell you we had a terrible week of practice,” interim head coach Rich Bisaccia said. “I can’t say that.”

I’m not ever going to excuse Jon Gruden for those insensitive emails that led to his resignation. But from a pure football standpoint, the Raiders desperately miss the former head coach’s leadership. There was none Sunday, on the field or sidelines.

Mathematics can be tricky. The Raiders need to play weekly as if a playoff berth is still there for the taking — no, they haven’t been eliminated just yet — but you couldn’t watch those first 30 minutes and not believe owner Mark Davis should wipe the entire slate clean before next season.

New head coach. New general manager. Maybe even a new quarterback, even though such an embarrassing deficit was hardly Derek Carr’s doing. He wasn’t good. Nobody was.

“I didn’t see this coming,” Carr said. “There is disappointment. It’s fresh. It’s an open wound. Obviously, you know what happened, but why? I try my best to stay positive, but it sucks.”

Close to drowning

The team has lost five of six and looked like the NFL’s worst side Sunday for long stretches. Worse than anyone. As bad as the Lions and Jaguars.

The record (6-7) might suggest they’re close to making a playoff push, but the team Sunday didn’t in any way. Five turnovers. Dropped passes. Missed tackles. Botched assignments. No communication.

Davis was seen walking to the team locker room afterward and, well, let’s just say he didn’t offer the expression of a child on Christmas morning. These won’t be tough decisions for him. Or shouldn’t be. His team just went from adrift at sea to submerged a good 1,000 feet or so.

It was 41-9 when the Chiefs took over at their own 49 — courtesy of Carr’s fumble, the team’s fourth of the day — and Kansas City ran a simple zone play to third-string back Derrick Gore.

Just running out the clock. Just trying to end this nonsense without getting anyone hurt.

Gore then hit the hole and ran straight into an open field, sprinting 51 yards untouched to the end zone.

It was the cherry atop an awful tasting sundae for the visitors.

“We preach to play until the bitter end it didn’t look like that,” Bisaccia said. “It was bad in all phases. I told the players that these kind of games bring out the best and worst in all of us and that it will be easy to see which one comes out.”

Harsh truth

Jeff James is a Chiefs season-ticket holder from Ralston, Nebraska, about a 2½-hour drive from Arrowhead. He’s an Andy Reid impersonator — looks just like the Kansas City head coach — who walks around pregame tailgates taking pictures with fans.

Wears a headset and everything.

“Have you seen the Raiders’ logo?” James inquired a few hours before the bloodbath.

Yes.

“Do you notice how one eye is covered?”

Yes.

“Yeah, he doesn’t want to watch that team play, either.”

Talk about an accurate mic drop.

Ba-da-bing. Wipe the dang slate clean.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.