All is not well in Raider Nation.
The Raiders lost to the Chargers, 24-17, in Los Angeles on Sunday to fall to 1-3.
This slow start comes after going 6-11 last year, and fans are disgruntled with head coach Josh McDaniels.
Raiders fans packed the building at SoFi Stadium for the Week 4 game and several of them approached team owner Mark Davis’ suite and harangued him to fire the coach.
“Fire him! Fire his ass!” came the pleas from a chorus of angry Raiders fans. “Fire him Mark!”
Most NFL owners would likely sit there stoically and let the fans have their say, but Davis roared right back.
“Smarten up!” he told them, without elaborating on what elements of McDaniels’ tenure have given him confidence that the situation will rebound in the near term.
The fans were not dissuaded, yelling once again at the owner to fire the coach, and Davis responded by pointing his index finger to his head and telling them to use their heads.
McDaniels has been in the crosshairs of Raiders fans for quite some time but particularly since last week, when he made the puzzling decision to kick a field goal while in the red zone and trailing the Steelers by eight points with 2:25 remaining in regulation.
McDaniels said he not regret the decision after the game, which the Raiders lost, 28-23.
“You have two choices there,” McDaniels said. “You try to make it a five-point game, where you have an opportunity to win it with the touchdown if you get the ball back. Or you try to go for it there, and then if you happen to convert then you’ve got to make the two-point conversion and all the rest of it.”
McDaniels went 11-17 as head coach of the Broncos from 2009-10, but won six Super Bowl championships as an offensive assistant with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady in New England.
The Raiders will attempt to rebound at home in Week 5 against the Packers on “Monday Night Football.”
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