By definition, a Raider takes. He plunders, he pillages, he loots, he overbears. He decides on a trophy and he has it for himself, allows no one to pry it away.

The Raiders we saw in Tampa this afternoon were a direct contradiction of their branded title – they were charitable givers of the highest degree. They had territory and threw it away for nothing. They were aggressive, but they were weak. Their outright stupidity belied their instinctive decisiveness and pulled the curtain delicately concealing a crucial component of their identity:

Forget their record. Forget their talent. Forget their explosiveness. The Raiders are breaking the sound barrier with no one at the yoke. There is no one guiding this team.

A team under capable command doesn’t give up three penalties that create first downs on a fourth quarter drive that leads to his opponent taking a late lead. A competent tutor doesn’t allow his charges to give up five yard penalties on two separate First and Goal plays at the 2 yard line, including once on the team’s penultimate drive in regulation, trailing by a touchdown. The Raiders have been carried far this year aboard the tide of their considerable talent, that’s true. But athletic skill can be attributed to many things – indiscipline is the result of only one.

The Buccaneers that faced these headless horsemen from Oakland deserved by the sake of their own degenerate play to be utterly decimated on Sunday, and perhaps would have been against an opponent with even a modicum of situational coherence. Jameis Winston lost track of his star receiver Mike Evans after a promising first quarter that saw Winston standing strong in a crowded pocket, making sterling passes on the run against a secondary weakened after Sean Smith left with an early arm injury.

Winston’s accuracy eroded, and with it his team’s early ten point lead. Staked to a 17-10 lead after a miraculous-seeming nearly mistake-free third quarter, the Raiders regressed in the Fourth. It doesn’t matter that they came back to tie and force overtime after blowing the lead. To a certain extent, it doesn’t matter even that they were able to slide through a Bucs secondary trying to tackle people as if it were by and large armless to a victory late in overtime. When evaluating the long-term prospects of this team — when determining their ceiling this season against franchises that play like adults — what matters are the inexcusable, avoidable penalties – the countless illegal formations, 12 men on the field, holding on punts that were launched into the endzone – the plays that would have destroyed them against a team anywhere above sub-mediocre, which is an optimistic valuation of the Buccaneers.

Del Rio will get credit for going for it on 4^th and 4 in overtime. He doesn’t deserve it – or, at the very least, the value of that credit doesn’t come close to exceeding the weight of his team’s mistakes. 4^th and 4 on the opponent’s side of the field approaching two minutes left in overtime against an offense that had mustered only three-and-outs in the extra session – to punt would have been laughable. If you want to give Riverboat Jack credit for doing one not-laughable thing this afternoon, go ahead – I won’t.

Here is an abridged list of things that this obvious Fourth Down decision doesn’t excuse:

• Crabtree turning a 3^rd and 1 to 3^rd and Long, which wouldn’t be converted, with a taunting penalty.
• Delay of Game on 1^st and Goal from the 3.
• Offensive Pass Interference in the endzone by Crabtree, negating a touchdown.
• Illegal shift on 1^st and Goal from the 2, trailing by a touchdown late in the 4^th
• Hands to the Face by a receiver in overtime, in field goal range.
• False Start on 3^rd and 16 in overtime, pushing the Raiders out of FG range.
• Holding on an overtime punt that was sailing into the endzone for a touchback.
• Holding to negate a 42 yard pass play in overtime.
• An NFL record 23 penalties for 200 yards.

To summarize, THIS game went to overtime:

 

Oakland massively outperformed an overwhelmed opponent, and still had to scrape victory from some of the most noxious effluvium we’ve ever seen in professional football. The Raiders learned today the very limit that an abomination can still be carried forth to victory – they should have learned, though, that they won’t beat anyone better than this anemic, unremarkable Bucs team with disgraces like today’s. Oakland’s brass can congratulate itself on its victory and its record, or it can hope to find a qualified mentor for its collection of supreme and willfully boneheaded talent. Right now, there isn’t one.