It’s well-established that the Raiders, since playing in Super Bowl XXXVII on Jan. 26, 2003, have had only two winning seasons since, in 2016 and 2021. So the 21-year-old rookie is not breaking any news there.
But for Jeanty, born two days after then-Raiders coach Bill Callahan’s epic “dumbest team in America in terms of playing the game” rant in 2003, to have such a preternatural mature outlook speaks volumes. Even if, with so much recent success in college, he may not know how to cope with this much disappointment this early in his pro career.
The true mystery is why the Raiders, under new management with general manager John Spytek, coach Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and a decree to compete, did anything but that in Kansas City.
Or in Indianapolis two weeks ago (a 40-6 blowout).
Or in Washington two weeks before that (a 41-24 shellacking).
Whatever this was in Kansas City, against an ancient AFL rival, was something entirely different.
For one, it marked the fifth time since 1961 the Raiders lost at least two games in the same season by at least 30 points, the first time since 2019.
For another, it was the first time since a 24-0 loss to the Falcons on Nov. 2, 2008, when JaMarcus Russell was the quarterback, that the Raiders had three first downs in a game. That day, the Raiders had 77 total yards and Russell was 6-of-19 passing for 31 yards.
“It was crazy,” Russell said at the time. “Everything that could go bad, went bad.”
Yeah, echoes of that sad day in Oakland bounded about erstwhile Arrowhead Stadium.
“It was just a terrible performance by us as a team,” Jeanty said. “Couldn’t stop them on defense and on offense we couldn’t get going at all. We’re going to lose a lot of football games like that.”
One of the more curious developments was Jeanty, who had been finding his groove the previous three games in rushing for a combined 273 yards with nine catches, being a forgotten man early against the Chiefs.
He had only one carry in the first quarter, four carries in the first half.
To be fair, that was more a symptom of what happened to the offense than a reason for why it happened.
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