McDaniels understands Raiders’ frustrations: ‘Losing sucks’

Raiders coach Josh McDaniels acknowledged Monday the critiques, including from his own star receiver Davante Adams, aimed in his direction after yet another blown lead and close loss on Sunday to the Jaguars.

He said the frustration is an expected response to a once-promising season that has started to spiral out of control.

“I trust our leadership. I trust our captains. I trust our locker room,” McDaniels said in a news conference at the team facility after returning home from Jacksonville. “And they don’t have to feel good about losing. People ask me, ‘Are you concerned with them?’ No, I’m not concerned with them. They should be pissed off. We all are. Losing sucks.”

The Raiders return home as a 6-point favorite over the Colts on Sunday seeking to snap a two-game losing streak and get back on track against a 3-5-1 team that fired its coach on Monday.

Adams had expressed frustration that the team seemingly went away from what had been working in building a 17-0 lead in the first half on Sunday when he had nine catches for 146 yards and two touchdowns. He had one catch for zero yards in the second half, though he was targeted eight times.

“I always think there’s areas that I could do better in,” McDaniels conceded. “I’ve stood up here before and said I’ve never called a perfect game, and I probably never will. I think there’s a lot of things that go into that. I know what he meant when he said that, and I don’t take any of those things personally. The reality is, we have opportunities and we’ve got to come through with them. And I have to do a good job of trying to make sure that we continue to try to present opportunities for our team. It’s really a two-way street in that regard.”

McDaniels said he was trying to establish the run game in the second half and hoping that balance could keep the Jaguars’ pass rush honest instead of putting their heads down and teeing off on the quarterback should they continue to drop back to throw so often.

“The thought process hopefully was the right mindset,” McDaniels said. “Obviously, the execution at the end of the day is what’s important and we didn’t put enough points on the board to win the game.”

McDaniels also cited the field goal the Jaguars kicked on the last play of the first half and the touchdown drive that opened the third quarter as a major turning point in the game. Between the :45 mark of the second quarter and the 14:52 mark of the fourth quarter, the Raiders ran just five offensive plays and went from a 20-7 lead to a 24-20 deficit. They called three runs and two passes, including a completion to Adams.

Regardless of where the fingers of blame should be pointed, the Raiders find themselves tied for the second-worst record in the AFC and having made history by losing three games in which they led by at least 17 points.

A return to the playoffs isn’t impossible, but that’s really only in the mathematical sense at this point. Little the team has done suggests they are ready to win out, especially with some challenging games down the road.

So the verbal expressions of those frustrations from a team that expected a postseason return shouldn’t be overly surprising.

McDaniels, however, cautioned that words won’t change the team’s fortunes. The Raiders need to figure out a way to win games and talking about who is to blame isn’t going to help them accomplish that goal.

“I think ultimately, at the end of the day, our responsibility is to one another in terms of doing our job, putting our head down and working,” he said. “That’s the long and the short of it, and there’s no shortcut to it.”

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