Marshawn Lynch's Actual Groin Is Big Kick to Raiders' Metaphoric One

Marshawn Lynch's injured groin tells us yet again that the Oakland Raiders now exist largely to torture every plan Mark Davis ever had for looking good for the homies before abandoning them.
 
Oh, there are other reasons why Lynch's injury, which will cost him at least a month and perhaps the remainder of this obliterated season, is bad, starting with the effect it will have on Lynch. His rep as the Raiders' indomitable man has been part of his defining greatness, so to lose time on the back of his career is unpleasant at best.
 
His time in the NFL is believed to be short anyway, given the fact that he came back from his retirement to play before the home town, so this sucks first and foremost for him.
 
It is also bad for the Raiders, who cannot rely on their passing game to save them from their collective fate. Lynch, when used, was their most reliable attack engine at a time when most teams living off a 65-35 pass-to-run ratio, which may help explain why they are 1-5 and in full earth-boring plummet.
 
Even those who believe in the possibility of salvaging something for the season and were hoping for good things to come from their next four games (Colts/49ers/Chargers/Cardinals) have been dealt a swift kick to the nethers that will last the rest of the season – to go along with all the others.
 
But we should not forget the underlying damage that comes to Davis given that he has done only three things since taking control of the franchise that his dissipating fan base has been universally pleased with – paying big money to keep Derek Carr, signing Lynch, and giving the run of the house to Jon Gruden.
 
Carr has lost a good deal of shine by getting injured and then deviating from his track of quarterback elite-hood by throwing more often to the people in the other shirts. Gruden spent all his good will in eight months, with the defining blow being the Khalil Mack trade. Lynch was the local hero with the titanium skeletal structure, and now that's gone with a single damaging MRI.
 
And so the undoing of this season is as complete as that of the 49ers, who lost their expensive running back option (Jerick McKinnon) in training camp, their franchise face (Jimmy Garoppolo) in Week 3 and their belief that good times had finally returned. Now they, like the Raiders, are 1-5, and headed for a joint season of failure as catastrophic as those in the 2000s, when they won 44 of 160 games between 2003 and 2008.
 
It seems almost targeted by a particularly malignant force who likes betting against the local teams – although handy tips here include betting the 49ers to cover the total each week, and fading the Raiders on the money line.
 
Hey, we're all about hope here.
 
But if your fandom is purer and more nobler than mere monetary considerations, then the Lynch news is nearly catastrophic. He was the most fun part of watching the Raiders this year, and if Sunday's loss in London was his last game of the season, it could be his last game as a Raider, and if that is so, he deserved a better sendoff, and so did you. 
 
Mark Davis? Well, that's another story. He is now winless in his three biggest attempts to seem like he was on top of this football ownership thing, and today, he could not look worse.
 
Then again, it's still early. I mean, Nevada could be closed for renovations, right?

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