And then there was one.
Not that you’ll see the Oakland Raiders’ website go out of its way to mention the meaning of Sunday’s final home game at RingCentral Coliseum. The Raiders play their final two games of 2019 on the road before packing up and leaving for a new domed stadium in Las Vegas in 2020.
But if the club’s public relations flacks aren’t going to admit it, Oakland’s Week 15 opponent knows the score. The Jacksonville Jaguars are prepared for an emotional scene in the Bay Area, where sometime after 4 p.m. Sunday, the famed Black Hole behind one end zone will, well, fade to black.
“I know what it can be like,” Jacksonville coach Doug Marrone said. “It can be a bunch of different ways, but it’ll be a crazy atmosphere. I can’t define crazy for you, but it’ll be a crazy atmosphere.”
The Raiders have played in their current home for 40 years over two stints, including the last 25 years. Some of the league’s most legendary games have taken place there, including the “Sea of Hands” contest in the 1974 AFC playoffs when stone-handed running back Clarence Davis outfought multiple Miami Dolphins defenders for Ken Stabler’s last-ditch pass into the end zone that gave Oakland a 28-26 win over the two-time Super Bowl champs.
Practically, the only things at stake for the all-time finale in Oakland are contractual obligations and possibly jobs for 2020. The Raiders (6-7) are all but out of the playoff race after a 42-21 loss last week to Tennessee, their third straight, while the Jaguars (4-9) have lost five in a row, all by at least 17 points.
Some in Jacksonville opined the team might have hit rock-bottom this year with their 45-10 loss last week to the Los Angeles Chargers. Los Angeles led 31-3 just over a minute into the third quarter and was able to pull quarterback Philip Rivers for the entire fourth quarter.
It’s the classic chicken-egg question for a struggling team. How exactly do you play with confidence when you’ve done nothing to build it since late October?
“We have to go back and make sure we know exactly what’s going on, feel good about during the week, feel good about the plan,” Marrone said. “It’s easy to say from an outside perspective, ‘What do they have to play for? What do they have to do?’ We’re all fighting for our jobs.”
The same could be said for coach Jon Gruden’s Oakland team. After allowing a whopping 552 yards against Tennessee, the Raiders waived three defensive players, including starting safety D.J. Swearinger. Oakland has allowed 116 points in consecutive defeats to the New York Jets, Kansas City and the surging Titans.
The good news for Gruden is it appears that rookie running back Josh Jacobs (shoulder) could return this week after being inactive against Tennessee. Given that opponents have run with impunity lately against the Jaguars, Jacobs could add significantly to his 1,061 yards.
“I’m glad the reports are positive,” Gruden said. “We’ll see what happens in the next 48 hours.”
