Gruden: AB's departure caused 'rethinking,' won't blame scoring woes on Carr
The Oakland Raiders have lost two straight games after an impressive Week 1 win over the Denver Broncos, but head coach Jon Gruden isn't pointing fingers at any individual player.
Gruden defended his squad Wednesday and discussed the impact of Antonio Brown's release days before the regular season on the team's offense, which has scored just 14 points in its last six quarters of football.
"It's caused us a little bit of ... rethinking," Gruden said, according to ESPN's Paul Gutierrez. "When you lose your starting 'Z,' who arguably is a great player, I don't think anyone's going to dispute that you have to replace him. And we're making an effort to move Tyrell (Williams) around, we're bringing on some younger guys. J.J. Nelson also got hurt, don't forget that. ... Dwayne Harris got hurt, so we've had some multiple things to deal with, and we're dealing with them."
The head coach also showed his support for quarterback Derek Carr. After a strong 2019 debut, Carr has averaged 6.1 yards per attempt and tossed as many touchdowns as interceptions (three) over the last two weeks.
"I think he's done some good things," Gruden said of his signal-caller. "I'm not going to put it all on Derek. We take responsibility as a play-caller. I'm calling the plays and designing some of this stuff, so I put it on myself. He's done a good job.
"Getting stuffed on fourth and a foot isn't his fault. He didn't miss the blitz pickup in the red zone. We had a ball that could have been caught, could have set up points at the end of the half. He's doing some good things. I'm not going to sit here and say that we're a finished product yet. We've gone through a lot of change through the first three weeks, and we played two really good teams, actually, three really good defenses in back-to-back weeks."
Gruden, Carr, and the Raiders will attempt to rebound in their Week 4 road tilt with the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.