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Was it the 1-4 record that gave it away? How about the 30th ranking in total defense? Or the fact that opponents have outscored the Raiders by 42 points?

Anyway you look at the Raiders, they are not a good football team and far from being a good one.

After arriving in London, Raiders coach Jon Gruden admitted that his team isn’t close.

“Well, I think we have a ways to go,” Gruden said, via Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “We’ve got a lot to prove. We have a lot to prove. As I’ve said earlier, we’re playing eight rookies right now. Before the season is over, we might be playing more than that. So we have a lot to prove. We need to see some people get healthy and help us. But we’ve got a lot to prove.”’

The Raiders also have 20 players who are 29 or older as well as rookie contributors in left tackle Kolton Miller, defensive tackle P.J. Hall, offensive tackle Brandon Parker, defensive end Arden Key, defensive tackle Mo Hurst, punter Johnny Townsend, kicker Matt McCrane and long snapper Trent Sieg.

Gruden, though, has never used the word “rebuilding.” Instead, he refers to the state of the Raiders as “building.”

“Whether you’re a young team or a veteran team, winning one game is no fun,” Gruden said. “But I think we’re determined to continue building this team. A lot of these veteran players are here for that sole responsibility of laying down the foundation of how we want to play, how we want to prepare, how we want to practice and how we want to compete.

“And I’m proud of our team for doing that. We haven’t won a lot of games, but we’ve had our opportunities; we’ve been there. Hopefully we continue to do that and see the emergence of some young Oakland Raiders.”