OAKLAND, Calif. -- Jon Gruden's return to the NFL sideline as a head coach after nine years in ESPN's Monday Night Football booth left a little to be desired for the Raiders, who were booed off the field after the final gun.
The Raiders, in a complete rebuild under Gruden with 31 players in the team's 53-man roster having never spent a day on the team's 53-man last season, fell to the Los Angeles Rams 33-13 before an announced 53,857 at the Oakland Coliseum.
As such, all seven coaches making their debuts on kickoff weekend lost, with Gruden joining the New York Giants' Pat Shurmur, the Chicago Bears' Matt Nagy, the Arizona Cardinals' Steven Wilks, the Indianapolis Colts' Frank Reich, the Detroit Lions' Matt Patricia and the Tennessee Titans' Mike Vrabel.
Gruden, of course, coached the Raiders from 1998 through 2001 and then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2002 through 2008, beating the Raiders in the Super Bowl in 2003.
In his second run as coach of the Raiders, Gruden reassumed offensive playcalling duties, and his game plan against the favored Rams was simple -- ball possession and power running, combined with some precision passing from Derek Carr.
It worked in the first half.
Because even with 10 penalties for 145 yards (more penalty yards than they had in any game last season), the Raiders held the ball for 21:31 to the Rams' 8:19 and Oakland led 13-10 at halftime. Carr completing 20 of 24 passes for 199 yards, though he was picked off in the end zone.
And while Rams cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib took away receivers Amari Cooper and Jordy Nelson, tight end Jared Cook more than picked up the slack.
Cook had six catches for 113 yards in the first half, his third 100-yard receiving game since joining the Raiders in 2017. He had four such games during the first eight years of his career.
Consider: Cook had seven catches for 141 yards and two touchdowns in his debut with the Rams in 2013, but he did not reach the 100-yard mark in any of his other 47 games with the Rams.
Cook finished Monday night with a franchise record for a tight end with 180 yards receiving on nine catches, eclipsing Todd Christensen's 173 yards against the San Diego Chargers on Nov. 20, 1986.
After looking like 2016 Carr in the first half, he regressed into 2017 Carr after halftime. He did not appear comfortable in the pocket against the Rams' fearsome interior pass rush of Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh. The play-action game disappeared and with it any chance of Gruden picking up a victory in his return.
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