
The Las Vegas Raiders' rough start to the season was capped off by a blowout loss against the Kansas City Chiefs. Las Vegas' offensive futility reached a new low in the absence of several of its best players. Las Vegas' roster was never set up to sustain injuries of any kind this season.
Still, Sunday's ugly loss to the Chiefs was an accurate look into the current state of this season's Raiders team. There is still time to turn things around if the Raiders' coaching staff is open to making changes.
Nate Davis of USA TODAY recently ranked every team in the National Football League heading into Week 8. The Raiders have the week off, but Davis ranked the Silver and Black as the 28th-best team in the league. That appears to be a fair ranking after the Raiders' most recent outing.
Davis noted one stat that put the Raiders' struggles against the Chiefs, noting that the Raiders did something that ranks last in the league over the past century.
"They gave up 31 points and 30 first downs to K.C. on Sunday, when the Silver and Black also ran 30 plays − the fewest in the league this century," Davis said.
Following the Raiders' loss to the Chiefs, Raiders Head Coach Pete Carroll elaborated on how the Raiders' lack of plays on offense impacted them. Although the Chiefs' defense played well, the Raiders' inability to sustain drives by getting first downs is undoubtedly an indictment.
“Offensively now, we've settled down giving the football up, and so now we need to kind of get going again and get moving and get productive. Yesterday was a mess of making first downs and they did a great job on us. We missed some guys out there,” Carroll said.
"Jakobi [Meyers] was really important to us, not having him, and the fact that we were so close to getting Brock [Bowers] back. We've been without Brock for almost a month now. He missed three games. It seems like forever. And he's such a central figure in our offense, to have him coming back will just seem different. I think everything about it will look different. And we're counting on that."
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