For one of the few times this season, the Las Vegas Raiders had the ball late in the game with a chance to win. The Raiders did not play their best, but they hung around long enough to have a legitimate chance of winning a game for the first time in months.
The Raiders have had little to cheer about this season, as they have now lost 12 of the 14 games they have played this season. They have done everything they can think of to win and nothing has worked.
The Raiders fired their offensive coordinator earlier this season, and while improved, they have still struggled. Las Vegas has tried three different quarterbacks and still struggled at the quarterback position. They have tried five different running backs and the run game is still one of the worst in the league.
Monday night's loss to the Atlanta Falcons was another example of all that has gone wrong for the Raiders this season. In his first game as the team's starter, quarterback Desmond Ridder explained the team's outlook during these trying times.
For Ridder, there are always small victories for the team to hang their hat on, even if an actual win on game day seems unlikely.
"Yeah, I mean, obviously, we know this game isn't going to be perfect," Ridder said. "We obviously strive for perfection. For me, it's just going out there and just making the little things easy, just going out there, just completing some of those passes, just being able to, like we said, get in the rhythm, get things going early, put points on the board. I don't know what the exact first half stats were.
"I know on both sides of the ball, or both sides of the offense for both teams, it wasn't very well. But when I look at my success, it's not necessarily what I do individually, but what we may do as offense, and that doesn't even mean ending in a touchdown, but in that third-and-six on the minus 45, not taking a sack to get you out of range, or whatever it may be, but just throwing the ball away on that third and six to let AJ [Cole] go be able to pin him within the five. So, it's little things like that where it's not necessarily individually, but as a team, we just want to be better at."
