1. A lot of the blame for the way this season ended falls on the offense.

The defense took plenty of heat early on for struggling to keep up with an offense that was humming. But it was the opposite down the stretch. The Raiders topped 400 yards and 20 points only once in the final eight games, in the win over Tennessee, the worst team in the NFL (and you may recall a fortunate defensive holding call that allowed them to win that game).

Coach Jack Del Rio, a defensive-minded guy, sure noticed the offensive failings.

“We struggled to move the ball tonight and we really kind of sputtered to finish the year,” Del Rio said. “At one time we’re red hot, I really feel we lost our way a little bit. Certainly leading into the offseason there will be a lot of work done to uncover where we kind of got off the rails. We’re nowhere near the productivity we expect to have, so we have to take a look that.”

Everything ultimately falls on the head coach, but Del Rio sure did his best to let it be known the offense turned out to be the primary reason the Raiders didn’t meet his expectations.

2. This isn’t how the Raiders wanted to send Charles Woodson out.

“I think everybody on the team is very disappointed for him,” running back Latavius Murray said. “I’m sure it’s not the way he wanted to go out. I feel bad for him, but we’ve just got to learn from this and do what we need to do so we’re not going home next year at this time.”

“We most definitely wanted to get the win for him,” defensive tackle Justin Ellis said. “A lot of us left it all out there. Unfortunately, we still didn’t get the win.”

3. David Amerson immediately apologized for his taunting penalty.

Amerson’s pick six was something the Raiders loved. His taunting penalty wasn’t. Amerson admitted to getting caught up in the moment and the penalty hurt, especially when Sebastian Janikowski kicked the kickoff out of bounds to give the Chiefs the ball at Oakland’s 45.

“He apologized right away about what he had done,” Del Rio said of Amerson. “You cause unnecessary exposure to your team and then the ball goes out of bounds and they’re starting on the plus-side of the field so that was a bad turn of events.”

Luckily, the Raiders forced a three-and-out to mitigate the issue.

4. Derek Carr isn’t satisfied with this improved, but ultimately fruitless season.

“We didn’t meet our expectations, we didn’t meet our goals we wanted and that hurts me because I set some lofty goals and we didn’t meet those this year,” Carr said. “Now to be honest, you take a look back on it, we are better this year than we were last year, we are a ton better and it’s not even close … We are a lot better, we are going in the right direction and obviously everyone in here wanted it to be better, we all did but we are headed the right way.”

5. Del Rio has some specific areas of improvement for Carr as he prepares for year 3.

Del Rio’s comments about the offense in general were rather pointed and it’s clear he wants to see that group improve. I’m not sure that means he wants to replace Bill Musgrave as offensive coordinator, but he wants improvement. He cited a specific trait he didn’t enjoy seeing out of Carr on Sunday that led to a season-high six sacks.

“I think the timing of routes and the ball coming out of the quarterback’s hand at the right time helps alleviate sacks,” Del Rio said. “You can’t stand back there and hold it. I think there were a couple cases where that was what occurred.”