The Las Vegas Raiders make an impressive comeback with a win after the week of scandal and the resignation of former coach Jon Gruden. Interim coach Rich Bisaccia praises his team’s morale – but at least with Derek Carr, Gruden hasn’t been forgotten.

Munich – This moment can make or break a whole season.

Alex Ingold, special teams captain for the Las Vegas Raisers, must have been aware of that before kickoff against the Denver Broncos. Because he found just the right words in his speech after the days of controversy surrounding head coach Jon Gruden’s racist, sexist and misogynist emails and his resignation.

“It’s time to show what a fucking team we are,” he roared to his teammates. And they followed up with action: In a 34-24 loss to the division rival Denver Broncos, the offense worked its magic with four touchdowns and the defense with as many forced turnovers.

Choose to be great. LVvsDEN pic.twitter.com/olbQwH6Qzx

– Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) October 17, 2021

Rich Bisaccia: First win in first game as head coach

Interim Rich Bisaccia’s first game as head coach after nearly 40 years in the coaching business couldn’t have gone better. “The biggest problem was understanding how the headset worked,” the 61-year-old joked after the game, “Other than that, yes, a lot of my responsibilities were the same. It was a team effort in this game. “

In fact, the team around the previous Special Teams Coordinator Bisaccia distributed the tasks on several shoulders: The playcalling in the offence was taken over by Offensive Coordinator Greg Olson. And he did it successfully: For the first time in eleven games, he scored a touchdown on the first drive.

Quarterback Derek Carr thinks about Gruden after strong game

And the offense remained dangerous for the entire game. Quarterback Derek Carr managed his fourth game of the season with more than 300 passing yards.

“There will be a time when all the emotions come up, but now is not the time,” Carr said after the game. However, ex-coach Gruden wasn’t completely out of the quarterback’s mind either, “It’s a shame we can’t hug Gru’ after a game like that. He would have been so happy with some of the plays we made, but it is what it is and we have to move forward.”

With the win and a 4-2 record, the Raiders can do that again with more confidence. The Nevada franchise is tied for second in the AFC West with the Los Angeles Chargers. With another win against the stumbling Philadelphia Eagles (record: 2-4) next week, the Raiders could go into their bye week with a lot of confidence.

A win over the unpredictables

But to do that, the team will have to continue to ignore all the byes like they did last week. “Obviously, it was an emotional time for all of us,” Bisaccia said, “But we’re a bunch of grown men who had to manage our emotions all week and manage them when it was time to be on the court.”

If that continues to work in the future, the playoffs are further within reach. Yet there had to be concern about the Raiders’ season after the negatives of the past few weeks.

“Everyone was saying, ‘Oh, what are the Raiders going to do now? Is the season over?’ We heard all that,” said defensive star Maxx Crosby, who had three sacks against the Broncos. “The fact that we had a great week of practice and played good football speaks to all those guys in the locker room. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

They showed themselves and the football world: The Raiders are back. Despite all the vagaries.