One sleep after coaching his Oakland Raiders to their fourth loss in five games, coach Jon Gruden was notably downtrodden at his Monday press conference.
In Gruden's first season as head coach in a decade, little has gone to plan for the Raiders, who have suffered injuries and endured poor play at key positions.
When asked Monday whether he can take anything positive from Oakland's league-worst 1-4 start, Gruden attempted to put a sunny face on the Raiders' situation, ultimately placing the most blame on himself.
"There are some negative things that are still resonating with me and Raider Nation," Gruden said. "But Brandon Parker did some good things -- that was his first start in history. I'm proud of what he did. P.J. Hall made a couple plays -- he's a rookie. You know, we played eight rookies yesterday at key positions, and I'm proud of what they did. Jon] Feliciano did some good things in his first start at left guard. [Derek Carr had a couple bad plays that were bad that he needs to correct and he will correct. But there were some good things.
"I'm going to continue to emphasize the good and do everything I can to fix the things that are bad because most of the things that are bad, my fingerprints are all over."
Admitting that he was "a little depressed today," Gruden bemoaned his club's injury luck and carousel of a depth chart.
"I haven't been on a team that rotates corners like this," Gruden said, "or defensive linemen, or kickers, or offensive tackles five games into the season. It's been tough."
It won't get any easier for Gruden's Raiders, who are traveling across a continent and an ocean to take on the Seattle Seahawks in London this weekend. In addition to planning for Russell Wilson, Gruden told reporters he is worried he might get vertigo from the lengthy flight.
"I'm not a great traveler," he said. "I'll be honest with you: I hate it. I'm concerned. I'm more worried about that than our goal-line offense right now."
From the goal line to the airlines, nothing is going right in Oakland this season, and Gruden knows it's up to him and his staff to chart a new flight path.
