How the Raiders Solve Their Rushing Issues

The Las Vegas Raiders made wholesale changes to their offense this offseason. Yet, through two games, some of the Raiders' most concerning issues from last season remain.

Fixing the Raiders' Ground Game

The Raiders finished with the third-fewest rushing yards two seasons ago. They finished last season with the fewest. After drafting running back Ashton Jeanty with the No.6 overall pick, the Raiders have the second-fewest rushing yards of any team through the first two weeks.

Raiders Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly spoke on Thursday before practice about this and more. Kelly elaborated on the team's issues.

“I mean every play has its own individual entity to it. So, on this play, all five guys blocked it right, Ashton [Jeanty] hits it. The second play of the game, they blitzed off the front side edge and we blocked it up perfect, Ashton got the 12-yard gain, ran through the safety. The unblocked player was the safety and ran through him and made a play," Kelly said.

"So, I think you have to look at the individual plays. Sometimes it's a one-person breakdown. Did they step with the right foot? Did they get their hand placement in the right spot? It's a combination of all those things when you take a look at it. But I think in the game from a run standpoint, I think what people have to realize is we were down 17-6 at half."

Earlier this week, before practice, rookie running back Ashton Jeanty alluded to needing more rushing attempts to get into a groove. Kelly noted that how often the Raiders run or pass the ball is based on the situation at hand.

As much as Jeanty should want the ball and proved in college that he gets stronger as the game goes on, he has yet to do that in the National Football League through two games. Kelly has to do what is best for the team based on the information he has at the time.

"So, when you look at the run-pass breakdowns by game, it's really what is the situation that presents itself. And we also had, I think, eight passes right at the end of the first half, because we had actually two two-minute drives in that portion of it too," Kelly said.

"So, that sometimes can skew the numbers, because you're not running the ball in two-minute situations. And I think after that drive when we got the ball back, there was eight and change to go. A nd it was a 20-9 game, so it was an 11-point score, two score game. So, we kind of went back to two-minute mode at that point in time. So, you're going to throw the ball a little bit more in those situations."