In The Presence Of Shane Lechler, AJ Cole Broke The Franchise Record For The Longest Punt..
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Before kickoff last Sunday, former Raiders punter Shane Lechler, wearing cowboy boots, blue jeans, and a Raiders hoodie, strolled subtly up and down the home sideline. This was Lechler’s second game as a fan in Las Vegas.
“It was cool especially considering the history of the punter position here,” Cole said postgame of breaking Lechler’s record. “I got to talk to Shane pregame, and that guy is a legend. Any time I’m mentioned in the same breath as him is pretty cool.
“When I was getting into punting, that guy was one of the best in the business,” said Cole. It’s great to speak with him and exchange stories because he has had an amazing career with the Texans as well as here. Some of the people in the building are familiar to us and have connections in common. It’s always an interesting experience to get to shake hands with the legend.”
Watching the record being broken in person was actually satisfying for Lechler.
“Records are set to be broken,” he said.
While the records may fall, the memories remain. Lechler described it as a full circle moment to his playing career, bringing himself back to his own franchise record-setting punt (80 yards) Week 12 of the 2011 season against the Chicago Bears.
Cole aspires to carry on the illustrious tradition of Raiders punters. Although Lechler and Cole’s encounter against the Vikings last Sunday was their first, hopefully it won’t be their last.
“A really good guy, outstanding personality,” said Lechler. “Hopefully one day we can sit down and have a beer and talk about things.”
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Davante Adams Calls Loss To Vikings ‘Embarrassing’
The Minnesota Vikings’ 3-0 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday was a complete display of offensive ineptitude. Star receiver Davante Adams is not pleased with how his Raiders looked. The teams combined for 433 yards of offense, which is less than the Baltimore Ravens put up on their own in Week 14, making it the lowest-scoring NFL game in 16 years.
With both teams coming off a bye week, you wouldn’t expect an outing like this, but with the only points coming with just 1:57 remaining, it was the second-most time that has elapsed before the first score in a game since 1966, including playoffs.
Adams said this is not the type of history that he or the Raiders want to be part of and added that the performance was simply embarrassing, via Paul Gutierrez of ESPN:
“I mean, it’s embarrassing, too,” he added. “Not that that’s the main thing that drives it, but you walk off that field and you’ve got a lot of fans that pay their money to come to see you play and you go up and put up a goose egg. It almost looked worse that they only scored three [points], too.
“You’ve seen plenty of teams win, 20, 22-0, whatever, but when the other team wins by three and they only score three, it just looks horrible. So, hopefully we don’t make any more history like that on this side.”
With 53 yards on seven catches, Adams was essentially the only offensive player for the Raiders to have a successful game. The Raiders offense never got going with running back Josh Jacobs playing through an injury and not looking like himself. Adams says he is prepared to move on from this game even though he feels they were unable to establish a rhythm:
“I mean, I’m moving past it,” he said. “I’m not over it, but I’m past it, for sure.
Simply put, we were unable to establish any sort of rhythm or cohesive theme throughout the game. When we finally did, we clearly threw in the towel and didn’t make things easy for ourselves. That’s what you will receive in the event that you are unable to convert third down. That is what it will appear like if you are unable to have explosive plays.
The Raiders have little time to reflect on the victory because they must play the division rival Chargers on Thursday night. To break this losing streak, Adams and the Raiders offense will need to get going.