Running Game Remains An Ongoing Concern For Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders scored 27 points against the Kansas City Chiefs, which should have been enough to win. A crucial late turnover and a questionable coaching decision that took points off the board hurt the cause, but one of the biggest reasons the Raiders lost is that the Chiefs did exactly what they wanted against Las Vegas, which was to make them one-dimensional. 

That dimension was the tight ends, but most of the rest of what the Raiders put on the field offensively was ineffective at best. The Raiders had just 72 yards on 26 attempts, per Nate Taylor of ESPN, and running back Ashton Jeanty had 58 yards on 15 carries. Throw out that late 19-yard run Jeanty bounced outside when Las Vegas was trailing and desperate, and the numbers get a lot worse. 

Center Tyler Linderbaum has been a revelation so far, but the offensive line got dominated for most of the day in this game. Kirk Cousins spent much of the second half under constant pressure, and the stat that says he wasn’t sacked yesterday is very misleading. 

The receivers aren’t helping -- in fact, they aren’t even showing up. Tre Tucker had two big drops down the stretch, and the one play made by former practice squad member Cody White wasn’t nearly enough to take the heat off Jeanty and Washington. 

Instead the Raiders ran a tight end-based offense, and that made it easier to make the running game irrelevant. The Chiefs knew they didn’t have to worry about a deep threat, especially after those Tucker drops, so the line of scrimmage was crowded with defenders, and both Jeanty and Mike Washington Jr. struggled to find room to run. It was a depressingly familar scenario from a team that seemed to be improving in this area. 

It’s not a disaster just yet, but it’s hard to believe the Raiders won’t be spending some extra time working on the running game this week. They got a small taste of what life is going to be like going up against top competition, and their schedule features more of the same in the next month. 

The next three opponents are the New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams, so there are no more get-right games to get this fixed. The offense played well as a whole on Sunday against the Chiefs, but life without a running game isn’t a winning formula going forward.