Terrelle Pryor To Remain As The Starting Quarterback For Raiders
By JL Herrera
Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor had the worst game of his career this past Sunday against AFC West rivals the Kansas City Chiefs. Yet, Oakland will remain with Pryor as their starting quarterback.
On Sunday against the Chiefs, Pryor threw a 39-yard touchdown to Denarius Moore in the first quarter. He also accumulated 216 passing yards total, but that was it with the good stats against the Chiefs.
Pryor wen ton to throw three interceptions and was sacked 10 times. Two of the interceptions were thrown in the last four minutes of the game. The Raiders sustained a heavy loss of 24-7 at the booming Arrowhead Stadium.
Whie this wasn't Pryor's first loss, it was his very first bad performance. After the first quarter versus the Chiefs, everything went sour.
Despite the bad performance, Coach Dennis Allen told the press that the Oakland Raiders will remain with Pryor as the starter and will work with the young quarterback to help the team grow.
"He's still got a lot of growing to do and a lot of getting better to do. He's a talented player and we're going to continue to try to build with him and try to grow with him," said Allen of Pryor on Monday.
Allen was very aware of Pryor's performance against Kansas City and agreed that it was a second-half collapse for Terrelle.
"I don't think he played as well as he would have liked or what we wanted him to, but again, he's still a young player," Allen said Monday.
During that second half, Terrelle Pryor failed to get plays started on time, thus resulting in three delay of games. Pryor also failed to release the ball fast enough when outside of the pocket. It seemed the young quarterback was constantly trying to make a big play, every play, and hanging onto the ball too long resulted in 10 sacks.
Still, for Coach Allen, it was a "learning experience" and he says he feels confident that the team can grow with Pryor at the helm.
The 24-year-old quarterback's performance was also marred by his offensive line, which was not exactly fantastic on Sunday, either. The O-line committed too many penalties and the tackles were having problems guarding and giving Pryor more time in the pocket.
Pryor also blames himself for the loss against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. The young quarterback strictly pointed the finger at himself in the locker room after Sunday's game against their rivals.
"What disappoints me is we lost a game because of me, that's how I look at it," Pryor said. "Defensively we played great, offensively we played great. It was just No. 2. He didn't play well."
Maybe Pryor is being too harsh on himself. There were many other mistakes made in that game. For instance, the running game never took off and, again, the offensive line was not at its best. Also, special teams missed a field goal..
Now, the Oakland Raiders have a bye to fix the problems and will be back for Week 8 against the slumping Pittsburgh Steelers.
For more Raiders news and updates, visit Raiders Central.
J.L. Herrera is a huge fan of football and has been following the Raiders since the 1980s during the LA era. J.L. is also a freelance writer and copywriter on the web. He taught English for a little more than a decade in Los Angeles at the secondary level. While writing for web based news outlets, J.L. enjoys reading, creative writing, and watching sports. His work can be found on Examiner.com.
