After four consecutive defeats, the Raiders’ head coach, Pete Carroll, has tried to keep the temperature steady in Las Vegas. But after a lopsided defeat at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys, Carroll sounded like a coach running low on answers.

Quarterback Geno Smith was sacked four times tonight, but HC Carroll still defended his decision to line up the offensive line the way he did.

“This was the best way we thought to do it,” the head coach said.

Yes, the Raiders were missing two starters up front, with left tackle Kolton Miller and right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson out with ankle injuries. But even with that caveat, what we saw tonight was the same thing we’ve seen for most of the season: an offensive line that simply can’t hold up.

The patchwork group of Stone Forsythe at left tackle, Dylan Parham at left guard, Will Putnam at center, Jordan Meredith at right guard, and DJ Glaze at right tackle gave Geno Smith almost no room to operate. He spent most snaps fighting just to set his feet, finishing with 238 yards, one touchdown, and a pick, all while absorbing wave after wave of pressure.

In the first half alone, Smith was pressured on 41% of his dropbacks. Add in the fact that this is now the 31st time he’s been sacked this year. There isn’t a quarterback alive who can thrive behind that. On the other sideline, the Cowboys allowed one sack all night, and Dak Prescott had another excellent game, throwing four touchdowns from mostly clean pockets.

And now they get the Browns next week, with Myles Garrett waiting. Cleveland’s front is going to squeeze Geno from every angle if things look anything like they did tonight.

But this wasn’t solely an offensive line problem. It was a flat performance across the board. And Pete Carroll seems to have lost faith in the locker room.

Pete Carroll’s lack of faith in young talent

After all the losses, all the injuries, all the flat Sundays, Pete Carroll still won’t turn to the young guys the way many believe he should. And after the game, he finally addressed why.

“They gotta show us they’re ready,” he said. “We’re trying to win the games. We’re trying to do the best thing to win the games. I kinda thought that that might come up. I don’t know how to coach that way,” the head coach added.

Fair enough. But the truth is, the players he is putting out there aren’t showing they’re ready either.

The Raiders fell to 2–8 after getting run out of their own stadium on Monday night by a 4-5-1 Cowboys team with 33-16 on the board. Geno Smith has been rough, tied with Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa for the league lead with 13 interceptions. The worst part is, nothing has gotten better since the start of the season. No signs of any progress.

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And it isn’t going to get any easier. The Raiders have just two wins and might only be favored twice the rest of the way, with the Browns and Giants visiting. After that? Chiefs, Chargers, Broncos, Eagles, Texans. They’re all playoff hopefuls. It’s going to be a rough stretch.

At this point, the season is essentially gone. The smarter move would be to use the next seven weeks to try new combinations and find out which young players can help next year. There’s nothing more to lose.