#5 Kurt Busch discusses Darrell Wallace Jr’s season of change
Kurt Busch might not have had the championship season he wanted in 2020, but he does say that he learned a lot. In fact, he claimed during an interview with OZY that Bubba Wallace s Black Lives Matter message really impacted him. The former champion even went as far as to call Wallace s use of the NASCAR platform to lift black voices significant and tasteful.
It was incredible. I was impacted by it, I think, less than others because I grew up in a remarkably diverse town,” Busch said when asked about Bubba Wallace s social justice efforts this season. “Las Vegas has people from all over the world that come in and settle in there.”
#4 Derek Carr out for two weeks with groin injury
The final two weeks of the NFL season are about to play out, and the Las Vegas Raiders will be without their starting quarterback for both of them. This is the result of Carr going down with a groin injury during Thursday night s game against the Chargers, which forced the Raiders to rely on Marcus Mariota instead.
Fortunately for the Raiders, Mariota did everything he could to make the game close and even came up clutch in several key situations. Of course, some will point to his game-sealing interception in the fourth quarter, but he arguably made it further than Carr would have. Heck, Mariota even chased down the man that intercepted him to prove how much he wanted this role.
This will compound the quarterback controversy further and force the team to make a crucial decision in the next two weeks. Whether that decision turns out to be starting Marcus Mariota over Derek Carr in the playoffs remains to be seen, but it seems like that s something the Raiders are considering.
#3 Colin Cowherd calls out Jon Gruden for late season implosion.
It s no secret that Colin Cowherd loves to hear himself talk, and while he does turn out to be wrong on some things, there are times he is right. One example of this was his harsh criticism for his good friend, Jon Gruden, whose team lost to the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night. In fact, he went on to claim that the former Super Bowl-winning coach had a habit of blowing it late in the season.
“The Raiders and Gruden are getting worse at the end of years, Cowherd said on Friday. Assuming the Raiders miss the playoffs, it ll be the third time Jon Gruden has coached a team, started 6-3 and missed the playoffs. Is it probable that Gruden s an average coach, and he s more media marketing maven than football genius?
Gruden has sworn up and down that Derek Carr was the future of this team, but he instantly gets outclassed by Mariota in his first game in over a year. If nothing else, he has an inaccurate picture of his team.
Mariota proved to be much better than Carr on Thursday, and really helped to bring out the best in several offensive players. That s something that Gruden is going to need to take notice of if the team wants any chance of making the playoffs.
#2 Kyle Busch talks up new crew chief, Ben Beshore.
Kyle Busch and longtime crew chief, Adam Stevens, parted ways at the end of the season, which means that Ben Beshore will become the two-time Cup Series champions new crew chief. While Beshore doesn’t have much experience in the Cup Series, he has worked with Kyle Busch in the Xfinity Series over the years and could help propel the driver to another championship.
Busch already seems confident in his new guy. In fact, the Las Vegas native was asked about his confidence in his new crew chief and gave the guy a glowing review. That s a positive sign of things to come in 2021 and could be the start of a championship season if all goes well.
We wouldn t have Beshore come on board if we didn t think that he was going to be able to be the man for the job, Busch said confidentially. “I’m looking forward to it. He s got the credentials; we ve worked with him before. We kinda have a little bit of dialogue that we ve already done in the past few years,
#1 Marcus Mariota claims that this is still Derek Carr’s team after loss to Chargers
The debate for who should be the starting quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders has raged on all season, and while some saw Carr as the sure bet, Marcus Mariota made a case to take the reigns. In fact, between Mariota racking up over 200 yards in his Las Vegas debut, to his two touchdowns, Mariota showed that he has a dimension to his game that Carr just doesn’t.
However, the Raiders were defeated by the Los Angeles Chargers in overtime, which killed all the good buzz off Mariota s return. Of course, the loss really wasn t Mariota s fault, especially since the defense just couldn t get anything going, but it was still a dose of reality for a team that is imploding. Mariota took it all in stride though.
“This is Derek’s team,” Mariota said after the Raiders’ 30-27 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers “For me, I just try to come in and help these guys get a win. Derek is a great leader and somebody this team can look to.”
