Chip Kelly Knows What’s Holding Raiders’ Offense Back — And It’s Not Just the Playbook

Self Inflicted!

“I think it’s different each week, as I said, because it’s what’s available each week. So who do you have player wise and all that. We obviously have to execute. I think for us, we need to stay in a rhythm,” Kelly said. “And a lot of them sometimes it’s self-inflicted wounds in terms of penalties or things like that, that we get a drive going and we’re moving in the right direction, you can feel the rhythm and you can feel what the players are doing, but then all of a sudden you get into a long yardage situation. So instead of being in third and three, you’re in third and 13.”

In today’s NFL, that’s often a death sentence for a drive.

“In this league, third and 13 is a real difficult deal to convert. I don’t think many people are converting on third and extra longs in this league just because of how the defenses are playing. So a lot of it, as we talk to our team about, is just not the self-inflicted wounds. The defense is going to make plays.”

Penalties, Drops, Turnovers: The Real Killers

Kelly also pointed to the quality of defenses the Raiders have faced and will continue to face down the stretch — but he didn’t use that as an excuse.

“These defenses in this league are really, really good. But it’s the penalties, it’s the drops, it’s the turnovers that really hurt you on the offensive side of the ball, and those are things that we have to clean up. And that’s on us, that’s nothing that we can say, ‘Hey, they did a good job.’”

For Kelly, the details are what separate a sustained drive from another stalled possession:

“If we don’t get our hands where they’re supposed to be and they’re outside the framework of the body and you’re corralling somebody, then they’re going to call a hold. Or do we line up in the right formations? All those things are things that right now. Because of some of the injuries and where we are and you’re really kind of thin, we can’t afford to hurt ourselves. And that’s, I think, in a lot of those drive situations, that’s what’s been happening to us.”

With injuries mounting and the margin for error shrinking. The Raiders don’t just need new plays from Kelly  they need cleaner football. If Las Vegas is going to salvage the second half of its season, the “self-inflicted wounds” Kelly referenced will have to be the first thing to go.