Maybe bringing back Jon Gruden wasn’t such a great idea

It turns out Jon Gruden isn’t the coach he once was and is it not, in fact, 1998 anymore.

A game we all like to play every offseason, with varying degrees of seriousness, is to try and find old head coaches who could be coaxed out of retirement to lead bad teams into a new era. It’s not a new game as we’ve been doing this for years (the Buccaneers fired Tony Dungy to try and bring Bill Parcells out of retirement in 2001), but rarely does it ever actually happen.

Jon Gruden has been the most popular subject of these rumors in recent years, but it never seemed like a good idea. Even after the Oakland Raiders finally convinced him to come back, with a 10-year, $100 million contract, it was universally panned.

Two games into the experiment, those who called it a bad idea are feeling validated.

Gruden’s return featured a blowout loss to the Rams on Monday Night Football and he followed that up by blowing a lead to the Broncos.

This most recent loss is about as bad as it gets for the Raiders. They were up nine points, on the road in a divisional game, and needed to hold Case Keenum to secure a win. That was apparently too much to ask and the Raiders remain winless in the Gruden Redux era.

Most of the game wasn’t that terrible, but one specific play late in the game is indicative of everything wrong with Oakland. With Denver on the ropes, leading by two, the Raiders allowed a pass completion to Tim Patrick who broke two tackles and put Denver deep in field goal range.

Brandon McManus kicked a game-winner, but it was both the stunning lack of awareness on defense and Gruden’s response to it after the game which is cause for alarm.

For a second straight week, Gruden has made comments about the team’s lack of pass rush. That wouldn’t be such a big deal if he hadn’t traded Khalil Mack, the best pass rusher in football. Gruden’s tenure so far has been an utter failure on all levels. It’s only the second week of his return, and it’s unfair to say the entire next decade is going to go poorly, but this is hardly the way Raiders fans — specifically Mark Davis — thought things would go.

Losing is one thing. Blowing a lead the way Oakland did is leaving a lot to be desired. Maybe bringing Gruden back wasn’t such a brilliant business move after all.