The Las Vegas Raiders got an excellent performance from their offensive line, and it was the key to a two-touchdown win.
The Las Vegas Raiders did a lot of things right in their 27-13 Week 1 win over the Miami Dolphins. Quarterback Kirk Cousins ran the offense efficiently and consistently put up points, Ashton Jeanty was a dual threat running the ball and catching it out the backfield, and the defense got better throughout the game and put a solid pass rush on Miami quarterback Malik Willis.
But the most important thing the Raiders did was block. The offensive line that was a disaster last year was solid throughout. They opened inside running lanes for Jeanty, allowed both him and rookie running back Mike Washington Jr. to bounce runs outside, and they consistently gave Cousins a solid pocket from which to operate.
It’s tough to overstate how important this is for the Raiders, both now and for their season as a whole. Not having a functional offensive line ruined morale within a very short amount of time, especially when players, fans and commentators realized that coach Pete Carroll and his erstwhle staff had no answers for the problem.
This staff is very different. Say what you will about Kirk Kubiak as a rookie coach, but knows what he wants, and during the offseason he went out and got it. Specifically, that was center Tyler Linderbaum, who managed to get the Raiders to bid against themselves as they reset the center market in the process.
That may or may not turn out to be a mistake over the long haul, but for one game it was exactly what the Raiders needed. The line functioned as a cohesive unit, and the only time we saw those ugly plays when Jeanty would get tackled in the backfield with no chance to get yards was late in the game with the Dolphins sitting on the run because they desperately needed to get the ball back.
There are some things to fix going forward, however. Those two Cousins picks in the middle of the field were borderline wounded ducks, and you can see his loss of arm strength on those throws in particular. The Raiders are going to need to function in that part of the field, especially since that’s where Bowers lives when it comes to making big plays.
The receivers didn’t get a lot of separation, either, save for a big play to Tre Tucker that produced 21 yards. We knew that was going to be a problem going in, though, and for whatever reason Kubiak has chosen to live with it. But he also appears to have built a solid line together with offensive line coach Rick Dennison, and that’s a big step up for a team that didn’t have one last year.
