Las Vegas Raiders HC Jon Gruden.
After the first two weeks of the NFL season, Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden has had some major mask issues. He was called out by the NFL after the first game and then he was fined for not wearing a mask in Week 2. He was much better about keeping it on against the New England Patriots but the poor mask was barely able to hold on throughout the game.
The internet couldn’t help itself and Gruden’s mask quickly became a meme.
One Twitter user said it looked like Gruden was wearing a thong on his face.
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It sure looks like Jon Gruden was wearing a thong as a mask vs Patriots
More people chimed in.
I need a pic of Gruden’s mask. I think he’s eaten half of it
While the mask was barely hanging on by a thread, it did enough to at least keep Gruden from getting fined.
Gruden Talks Lack of Waller Targets
Sunday wasn’t a great day for the Raiders. They were feeling great after starting the season off with two straight wins. Unfortunately, the team had to head to the east coast to face off against a strong Patriots team. Tight end Darren Waller has been a big focal point for the offense this season but New England almost shut him out completely.
“We have a lot of good receivers. We didn’t come in here today to target Waller every play,” Gruden said of Waller after the game. “Credit New England, they had a nice game plan. They got pressure on our quarterback a few times. We had Waller open. The film is out there for everybody to look at. But New England did a nice job. They did a better job than we did today.”
It’s clear the Raiders couldn’t’ figure out how to get Waller involved and the offense suffered for it. They’ll need to make sure that isn’t a common occurrence. If the offense stumbles every time Waller gets shut down, NFL defenses are going to put a lot of focus on the tight end.
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Carr Addresses Patriots Defense
The Raiders did have plenty of scoring opportunities against the Patriots but turnovers crushed them. Also, Waller not getting involved really hurt the team.
“I mean there was one play I missed him on, but they did a good job of making it look like a double when they weren’t doubling him, you know what I’m saying?” quarterback Derek Carr said of Waller. “They do a good job, man. And you don’t have three seconds to say is he really doubling? I mean, you gotta play the game fast. You gotta make your decisions. And I owned up that. I said ‘Hey, man, I missed you, that was my fault.’ But besides that there was times when he was in certain spots they’d drop underneath him. When he was in other spots they would double him. They would check to this or check to that. I mean that’s what they try and do. And you saw Hunter [Renfrow] have a big day. With this team you got to figure out they’re playing in situational football, third downs, and who they’re going to try and double and who they’re going to try and take away and obviously you know where most of our targets usually go.”
The injuries are piling up for the Raiders offense and it obviously affected them. Getting Henry Ruggs back on the field should help open the offense back up.
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