This Raiders' Position Group Must Live Up to Expectations

Context Matters

Jeanty rushed for less than 40 yards Sunday. Raiders Offensive Coordinator Chip Kelly spoke before practice earlier this week. He explained that several things factored into the Raiders' rushing woes last Sunday.

"A lot of it was four-minute offense at the end of the game when they were stacking the box, and they know you're going to run, and we know we're going to run, and that's just kind of some of the numbers that come out of that is a lot of those carries, I think four or five or six of them were against loaded boxes, where, in a non-wet day, you may try to throw it in those situations,” Kelly said.

“But the biggest situation for us, especially when we got up two scores, that, again, a great example of Geno [Smith] was on that third down when he checked it down to Mike [Mayer], and Mike ran to put us back into field goal range. And I told Geno when he was coming off the field in the headset, that may be the play of the game because that made it a two-score game, and that changes their philosophy. 

Kelly noted that it is much more difficult to run the ball in obvious running situations. This is especially the case when teams are trying to shorten the game and run the clock out. Still, the Raiders were abl to do enough offensively to win last week.

"So, then Josh [McDaniels] is throwing every down, so then when we're back out there, we're running every down. But we knew we were running every down. Mike Vrabel knew we were running every down. I think everybody in the stands knew we were running every down. That makes it a little bit more difficult, but we still have to improve upon that," Kelly said.

"In this league, there's going to be weeks where you're passing game carries you, there's also going to be weeks where you're running game has to carry you, and a lot of that depends on how the defense is deployed. But we do have to get better on our four-minute offense. Losing Brock [Bowers], who is kind of integral in that, and having contingency plans if you're down a tight end of what you're going to do is part of that, and we've worked on that this week."

Kelly is willing to call whatever concepts and plays he needs to in order for the Raiders to win. Every defense aims to make their opponent one-dimensional. This means there will be games where the Raiders' offense excels in one area and not the other.

After upgrading both their quarterback and running back situations over the offseason, as long as the Raiders win, how many yards they rush or pass for should be an afterthought.