Oakland Raiders NFL Report Card Week Nine: Raiders Embarassed by Tim Tebow, Denver Broncos

Early in the season, the Oakland Raiders faced what most believed would be the toughest back to back games on their schedule when they faced the New York Jets and the New England Patriots. The Raiders, however, came away from that stretch 1 and 1, better than anyone expected.

Now, the Raiders have just completed what most thought would have been the easiest back to back games on their schedule when they took on the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos at home. Unfortunately for the Raiders, they choked terribly in both games and were embarrassed by both teams. Forgive the briefness of this week's grade, but the Raiders were so bad, there simply is not a whole lot to say on some of these grades.

Passing Offense: Carson Palmer showed glimpses of when he was a top five quarterback in the league. He had three touchdown passes, two of which came on perfect throws. He also did a good job of fitting the ball in tight spaces and making passes that Jason Campbell clearly would not have been able to. Unfortunately, he also just does not have all of the timing down and has not built enough chemistry with his receivers. As a result, he would up with three picks to go along with his three touchdowns.

Grade: C+

Rushing Offense: Michael Bush and the Raiders offensive line were almost the only bright spots in this game. Losing one of the best running backs in the game is normally a recipe for losing a running game. For the Raiders, this is not true. Bush had another very good week filling in for the injured Darren McFadden. Bush got 19 touches and put up 96 yards. Unfortunately, there was little success running the ball otherwise as the Raiders barely scraped out 100 yards on the ground. 

Grade: B

Passing Defense: Tim Tebow threw for 124 yards and 2 touchdowns. He finished the game with a 98.1 passer rating. No, 124 yards is not a lot, but 2 touchdowns is too many and too often there were wide open receivers who made Tebow's life in the pocket far too easy. Poor effort by the Raiders.

Grade: D

Rushing Defense: Tim Tebow: 118yards. Willis McGahee: 163 yards. Denver combined: 299 yards. Enough said.

Grade: F

Special Teams: The special teams look like they have regressed massively. After allowing a number of big returns in the first few weeks of the season, the Raiders kick coverage was starting to look like they had figured things out. Then they gave up a huge punt return for a touchdown against the Broncos. The kickers were their usual impressive selves, but did not have an opportunity to really impact the game.

Grade: C-

Coaching: God awful. That is all that can be said. The team had 15 penalties for 130 yards. Thats right, they had more penalty yards than the Raiders offense had rushing yards or Tim Tebow had passing yards. Not only that, but the defense looked absolutley horrific. This one falls primarily on Hue Jackson, but Chuck Bresnahan is also highly responsible for the terrible play of the defense. Take all of this and add in the rumors of Hue Jackson's moronic attempt at motivating the Raiders on Saturday night, and this is clearly one of the worst coaching performances in the NFL this season.

Grade: F (if I could give worse than an F I would.)

Overall: This was a very pathetic performance by the Raiders. The offense was not terrible, but it was not good. The defense looked like a high school team at times. The coaching was non existent. This is probably the worst performance by the Raiders this season.

Grade: F