Raiders coach Dennis Allen spent the offseason trying to convince the world that Matt Schaub was every bit the equal of Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers in the AFC West.
Sounds nice in March, but what we saw from Schaub on Friday night was tethered in the harsh realities surrounding a 33-year-old quarterback struggling to regain his old form.
One night after Rivers and Manning combined to go 14-of-17 passing for 139 yards, Schaub stumbled out to a 3-of-7 effort for just 21 yards in Oakland's 10-6 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
"Overall, we were pretty sloppy," Schaub told reporters, per Scott Bair of CSN Bay Area. "We hurt ourselves with a lot of penalties and we put ourselves in long yardage situations. It's tough to win that way.
"We have to really look hard at the mistakes and clean those up because they are things we can control, especially pre-snap issues. We need to iron those (mistakes) out if we want to be the type of team we want to be."
Bair noted that Raiders owner Mark Davis was "visibly upset" at a performance that saw Oakland tally 13 penalties for 94 yards, with six of those infractions coming on third down. In Schaub's defense, he threw a pair of balls to Mychal Rivera that should have netted first downs, but the tight end failed to catch either. The veteran passer also saw a 16-yard completion to Andre Holmes wiped out by penalty, but Schaub did nothing on his own to lift Oakland out of the mire.
Raiders rookie Derek Carr followed Schaub to go 10 of 16 for 74 yards with a pick, showing decent mobility amid a scattering of errors. Carr missed on a few throws he should have pegged. But if Oakland sees him as the future -- why wait?
The Raiders used this offseason to build a roster that meshes youth with plenty of proven (and past-their-prime) veterans. No signing was riskier than Schaub, a man lost in a Houston fog last season and two years removed from inspiring play.
Allen's odd faith in Schaub suggests the Raiders will stubbornly wage on with their aging veteran under center, but it's only a matter of time before the organization -- from the top on down -- opts for the promise of youth.
*The latest Around The League Podcast answers every question about preseason action that you were too afraid to ask. *
