3 NFL coaches who earned their pink slips in Week 9

2. Josh McDaniels, Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders decided against retaining Rich Bisaccia as head coach, despite the fact that he took over for Jon Gruden early last season, and led the team to a playoff berth. Instead, the Raiders hired New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to be their next sideline boss. This was his second stint as a head coach, his first being an unsuccessful run with the Denver Broncos that lasted less than two years.

Under McDaniels, the team went from a playoff contender to a team that is in the running for the first-overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Last week, the Raiders were shutout by a 2-5 New Orleans Saints team. But in Week 9, Las Vegas had a favorable matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Raiders actually held a 17-0 lead in the second quarter, only to put up three more points in the game. The larger problem was that they allowed the Jaguars to score 27 points. The Raiders did have a chance to tie things up on their final drive, but quarterback Derek Carr threw two incompletions to Davante Adams and got sacked for a seven-yard loss. Las Vegas tried to lateral the football around to try and score a desperation touchdown, but it ended with them fumbling it and allowing Jacksonville to recover.

As if this loss could not sting enough, take a look at these two statistics.

According to the Associated Press’ Josh Dubow, the Raiders had blown a 17-point lead in 628 regular-season and playoff games before McDaniels arrived just three times. Just eight games into McDaniels’ tenure, they have matched it.

Not only that, but they are the first team since the Cleveland Browns in 2009 to get shut out and blow a 17-point lead in consecutive games, per ESPN Stats and Info.

The McDaniels era has not gotten off to the start that owner Mark Davis had envisioned.