Raiders seek answers after humbling loss in Chicago

Another humbling loss has the Raiders scrambling for answers in a season that is dangerously close to becoming lost.

Coach Josh McDaniels says the search for solutions is underway after the team returned home from a 30-12 loss to backup quarterback Tyson Bagent and the Chicago Bears that dropped the Raiders to 3-4.

“We’ve got to coach better, play better, compete better,” he said. “There’s a lot we can do better. I know our team is better than that, but we certainly didn’t put it out there on the field (Sunday). So, we have a lot to improve on and that’s what we’re going to do today.”

The team is now back under .500 after evening its record with a pair of home wins, but even the victories have left a lot of meat on the bone.

This is a team that in reality is just a few plays away from being winless on the year. After escaping Denver with a 17-16 win, the Raiders lost three straight games. Home victories over Green Bay and New England followed, but both the Packers and Patriots had the ball with a chance to win in the final minutes.

While the Raiders knew they were just getting by, there was a hope the victories could be used as a springboard to better play.

That clearly didn’t happen.

“It would’ve been disappointing regardless,” McDaniels said of the clunker coming on the heels of a two-game winning streak. “I don’t think we played representative to what we feel like we can be. It’s always disappointing when you lose in this league, no question about it. We’ve been competitive in most every game we’ve been in this year and that one got away from us.”

The Raiders are now seven games into a season and still seem to lack a true identity. They can’t run the ball and once again struggled to tackle. They struggle in the red zone and on third down. They lost the turnover battle 3-0.

McDaniels said the team will rely on its leadership group to make sure the team stays focused and doesn’t allow the bitterness of an ugly loss linger into upcoming games, including Monday night at Detroit when they make a second-consecutive trip to the Midwest.

“We’re seven games in and we know where we’re at,” McDaniels said of how “I think sometimes the feeling after you lose, it doesn’t feel good at all, but I also think the way to improvement is also clearer because you sit there and you look at the reasons why we didn’t play well enough, and you can kind of see that we need to do A, B and C a little bit better. And if we do, I think we’ll be a much better team.”

It probably can’t get much worse. The Raiders struggled on offense, racking up just 235 yards and going 2-for-9 on third down. They weren’t much better on defense where they allowed 173 rushing yards and missed 10 tackles.

One thing that could help would be to get starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo healthy and back on the field.

There was a report this weekend that Garoppolo would be ready to play against the Lions, but McDaniels indicated that may be a bit premature. The Raiders have started three quarterbacks this year through seven games.

“That’s a medical thing,” McDaniels said. “Obviously, we prefer to have just Jimmy in there and just stay in there the whole time. And hopefully, we’ll be able to get to that here shortly. But, regardless of who’s playing, I just know that there’s a higher level for us, and we’ve got to get to it.”

Time may be running out.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.