Raiders become the next team to die under the Patriot Way
It's 1:26 in the morning here in Michigan. What a perfect time to write an article. Thanks Mark Davis! The reason I'm sitting here in front of my computer at 1:26 is becasue the Las Vegas Raiders just fired Head Coach Josh McDaniels and General Manager Dave Ziegler. Look, I'm a Lions beat writer. This […]
It's 1:26 in the morning here in Michigan. What a perfect time to write an article. Thanks Mark Davis! The reason I'm sitting here in front of my computer at 1:26 is becasue the Las Vegas Raiders just fired Head Coach Josh McDaniels and General Manager Dave Ziegler.
Look, I'm a Lions beat writer. This really has nothing to do with me outside of the fact that the team I cover was the team that beat the Raiders right before they made their decision. But I felt compelled to write something tonight because the same killer that killed the Raiders also killed the Lions just a few years ago.
I'm talking about the Patriot Way. It's like Thanos. It comes in and snaps it's fingers and the franchise it's now controlling begins to go under. It doesn't always happen this fast, but it's inevitable.
I watched Matt Patricia come to Detroit to take over a team that just needed to get over the next hump and then beat that team with a metaphorical barbed wire baseball bat for three years until they were in a position that felt harder to get out of than the 0-16 Lions. Look what this man and this philosophy did to the Lions team owner.
It's just aggravating to watch teams try to do this over and over again. It's never worked.
This will be the second time that Josh McDaniels has gotten the shot to make it happen and this time he didn't even make it through two seasons. It didn't work with Bill O'Brien, Nick Saban, Joe Judge, Eric Mangini, Jim Schwartz, Brian Flores, Al Groh, Matt Patricia or Romeo Crenel either. Why do teams keep trying to force it?
The Raiders might have been the smartest team of the bunch. It doesn't look like it now, because the team looks to be in turmoil at the moment. They are in turmoil by the way. But the good thing is that they got out fast. They didn't go the route the Lions went where they let the systematic teardown continue for three years and then give the coaches a make or break plan and this and that.
They instead did it before they lost everyone of value. This season is likely gone, but the Raiders can rebound fast if they simply make the right decisions going forward. Don't pull a Jim Irsay and hire your favorite old offensive lineman. Wait it out and maybe the Raiders can be the team that gets Ben Johnson or something.
As for McDaniels, he'll probably just head back to New England and get a job on Belichicks staff again. I don't know if he'll ever get another shot at being a head coach again. I don't know if anyone outside of Jim Schwartz will get a shot again.
