Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo should dress up as Daniel Powter for Halloween, wandering the streets of Las Vegas belting out following Monday night's woeful performance in the 26-14 loss to the Detroit Lions.
"I mean, you have good days and bad days," Garoppolo said via the official transcript. "Today was a bad day. No sugarcoating it. I mean, it is what it is, so I just got to play better. I mean, myself, I have to play better. There are a bunch of little things, but that would solve a lot of problems."
Garoppolo indeed had a bad day, and the camera did not lie.
The quarterback completed 10 of 21 passes for 126 yards with an interception in the loss while taking six sacks. Garoppolo missed a host of throws, including multiple deep shots to Davante Adams that could have tightened a contest that was more lopsided than the scoreboard indicated.
Garoppolo wasn't the only issue with the Raiders offense, but he was the biggest culprit.
Vegas gained a measly 157 total yards with 12 first downs. Compare that to the Lions, who had 486 total yards and 29 first downs. The Raiders had exactly one sustained drive late in the second quarter. The other 10 possessions were a compilation of botched opportunities, poor management and frustrating play. Outside of the 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive (most of that coming on winning with the ground game), the Raiders didn't have a possession that went for more than 26 net yards.
The most concerning issue is Garoppolo's inability to consistently involve the star wideout Adams, who caught just one pass for 11 yards on seven targets Monday night. Adams had his own flubs, including a bad third-down drop, but the quarterback airmailed him in key spots.
Following the loss, Adams was out of words.
"Honestly, I don't know what to say at this moment," Adams told reporters in the Raiders locker room. "I truly don't. I wish I had the words to say something that's not going to get blown up in the media and taken out of context, so I'm going to just, I truly, I just don't know."
In the past four games, Adams has averaged 35.5 receiving yards per contest with zero scores. In the previous four weeks, he'd averaged 99.3 YPG with three scores.
Following another failed drive late, Adams slammed his helmet on the sideline in frustration.
"It's not hard to maintain the confidence in our offense," Adams said. "It's just hard to curb your frustration when you can't put it together, when you know you should. Just keep trying to get better. Keep trying to get better."
The Raiders offense is a sad operation, which opened the season with eight straight games with fewer than 20 offensive points scored, the longest streak to start a season since St. Louis and Washington in 2009. Vegas' 15 consecutive games with at least one turnover is also the longest active streak in the NFL.
Monday night, the offense put up just seven points in 45 plays, matched by Raiders defensive back Marcus Peters, who did so on one 75-yard pick-six.
The issues have left Vegas players at a loss. Josh Jacobs was asked after the game what the Raiders need to do to fix the offense.
"I don't know, it ain't my job," Jacobs said, via NFL Network's Bridget Condon.
It starts with the quarterback. The Garoppolo signing has been a disaster thus far. Injuries have kept him off the field at times, and when he's on it, he's lacked pocket presence, his trigger has been slower than normal and he's made brutal mistakes each game. Head coach Josh McDaniels declined to say whether he'd consider a QB change.
Jimmy G said he's not using injuries as an excuse for his play.
"I'll never make an excuse like that. It is what it is, we're in the season now," he said. "People don't care if you have excuses or not, so you just -- you've got to go out there and play. I've got to play better. And it's just a bunch of little things, man. I mean, it's frustrating because you have the good days, you have the bad days, but we've just got to string them together. We've got to come out here and play better. There's just so much love in that locker room, man. It sucks that we performed like that tonight."
