Such is life with the Raiders when the annual rite of passage entering Week 2 is recounting the misery that was Week 1.
The Raiders were surprised, embarrassed and a little angry Monday in the aftermath of a 38-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans, their eighth straight loss in the season opener.
Absent was the kind of despair that followed a 24-20 loss to San Diego a year earlier, a punch in the gut that came after the Raiders had put their heart, soul and some reasonably good football on display only to get nothing in return.
Mistakes were so plentiful in Nashville that it seemed to cornerback Stanford Routt as if the Titans were mere bystanders while the Raiders sealed their own doom.
"Whenever you realize that you beat yourself, it's a little bit easier to swallow than somebody just outplaying you, or like a heartbreaker at the end," Routt said. "Whenever you beat yourself, that's probably the most frustrating, but it's the one with the most silver lining to it."
Coach Tom Cable had no trouble identifying the breakdowns on film but was at a loss to explain how a team that had supposedly forged a new culture had relapsed into the bad old days.
He said he told his team, "You're going to be shocked and a little bit angry seeing yourselves doing the things you used to do. Things we haven't done all preseason. Things we thought we had moved beyond. And here they are again."
Cable said he was confident the Titans game wouldn't define his team, and that was the prevailing theme in the locker room, as well.
"It was a minor setback," defensive end Trevor Scott said. "It went down how it went down. We can only get better from here on out."
"Just a mishap," Routt said. "Nothing serious. Nothing to go out and think the world's about to come to an end."
Tackle Langston Walker, staying with the "global" theme embraced by the organization, said, "The world isn't caving in on us. We're going to go out there, correct it and get ready for St. Louis."
After an offseason of mostly good publicity coming from a change in quarterbacks, a critically acclaimed draft and some common sense moves in free agency, linebacker Quentin Groves thought the Raiders have let the moment get too big.
"Gathering the things I got from everybody, we were somewhat nervous -- nervous for the simple fact that with a young team, you never know how you're going to handle expectations," he said. "There's been a lot of expectations placed upon this team, and we handled it with nervousness, and that's one thing we've got to get out of our system."
Tight end Zach Miller thought the Raiders were so sure of themselves despite a seven-year run of 11 or more losses, they may have overdone it.
"Maybe we were overconfident going into the season," he said. "Maybe because of some of the things we did we thought we could just show up."
# Cable said all injury updates would be provided Wednesday, the day each team is required to send its injury report to the NFL. It's probably safe to assume wide receiver Chaz Schilens, walking with a crutch and wearing support hose to protect his surgically repaired left knee, won't be ready for the Rams on Sunday.
# Cable is now 9-20 as the Raiders head coach, and 11 of those losses have been by at least 18 points.
