Graney: How do Raiders recover from worst loss under Josh McDaniels?

There is more than one option, determining which is the worst loss in the short Raiders career of coach Josh McDaniels. More than one stupendous stumble. There are several, in fact.

But none more egregious than what transpired in Chicago last week.

And now, the team must discover a way to move on. To bounce back.

It’s not always as easy as folks want to make it.

“You always look at everything,” McDaniels said. “If you have a game or a stretch where you don’t do as well as you want, you look at it and what are the ways we can improve? Is it just performance? Is it execution? Is it personnel? Is it decision making? Is it play calling? There’s a lot of ways to improve, so we’ve tried to look at everything.”

Smart idea.

Memorable defeats

Seventeen games in a season. Good wins and bad losses. The sides that recover from the latter fastest have the best opportunity not to let one defeat be followed by another, and so on.

So it’s on the Raiders to forget an embarrassing 30-12 loss to the Bears and prepare for a “Monday Night Football” matchup at Detroit.

It’s on them to somehow not add to those ridiculously bad setbacks under McDaniels.

The defeat last season to Indianapolis was memorable. Jeff Saturday was coaching his first NFL game after coming off the high school fields and out of the broadcast booth. He led the Colts for eight games. His only win: versus McDaniels and the Raiders.

That’s when the Raiders had 1 yard after their first two series. They had 5 after the first quarter. They played with the urgency of a snail. They averaged 4.8 yards per play and were 5 of 13 on third down. They were awful.

It might have been just as bad against the Saints, a 24-0 loss last season in which the Raiders advanced past midfield just once. It might have been just as bad against the Rams, when Los Angeles started a quarterback (Baker Mayfield) claimed off waivers who received his team’s playbook just days before kickoff.

And still drove 98 yards in the closing minutes for a 17-16 win.

But the Bears game was the worst. Mostly because of the opportunity. Mostly because the Raiders had a chance to climb above .500 and were facing an undrafted rookie quarterback making his first NFL start in Tyson Bagent.

Instead, they offered a terrible performance.

So how do they bounce back?

They need to hope starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (back) is fully healthy and plays much better than he has to date, tied for the NFL lead in interceptions with eight despite having played in only 4½ games.

They need to tackle better, having missed 13 last week and more than once showing little effort when pursuing ball carriers.

They need to somehow discover a run game that has been absent all season, some sort of offensive spark on the road.

They need to forget about the Bears debacle. That’s done.

‘17-round fight’

“We have no choice but to give (Detroit) all our attention and respect,” offensive tackle Jermaine Eluemunor said. “If you hang your head on Chicago, then you’ll go out there and get hit in the mouth.

“I look at the season like a 17-round fight. You get knocked down in one round and keep thinking about that one, you’re going to get knocked down in the next round and again and again and again.

“Just clear your mind and give it the best you have. We have no other choice. We’re playing one of the best teams in the NFL.”

They need to compete a lot better than last week, when the Raiders suffered the worst loss under McDaniels in his tenure.

And, man, that’s really saying something.

Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.