Oakland Raiders: Keys To Victory Over The Cincinnati Bengals

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Aug 14, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders running back Latavius Murray (28) stiff arms St. Louis Rams cornerback Tremaine Johnson (22) in a preseason NFL football game at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Get Latavius Murray Rolling Early

Much of Oakland’s offensive success this year is going to be predicated on having a potent running attack.

We all saw what happened last year when the Raiders had one of the worst rushing attacks in the league – only the Arizona Cardinals were worse. And even then, it wasn’t by much. There were a number of individual running backs around the league who had more rushing yards than the Raiders did.

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That leads the Raider offense to becoming one dimensional and very predictable – if they can’t run it, Carr is going to be throwing it, obviously. And while Carr had some success throwing it around the stadium last season, if the Raiders hope to start winning consistently, they will need a strong, potent running attack to pave the way.

Against both the Rams and Vikings in the first two exhibition games, the Raiders accomplished a feat they hadn’t accomplished in seemingly forever – they put together back to back 100+ yard rushing games. Against the Cardinals and Seahawks, that same ground game looked very reminiscent of the 2014 Oakland Raiders.

Latavius Murray is going to need to go off early in this matchup. The offensive line is going to have to find ways to blow open holes like they did in exhibition games one and two. Though it will be Austin Howard and not Menelik Watson holding down that right tackle spot since Watson is done for the year after blowing his Achille’s.

It’s beyond imperative that the Raiders establish the run early and then keep the Bengals on their heels. Murray played very well in limited action throughout the preseason and the Raiders need him to step it up to another level – just as the need fellow running backs Roy Helu, Taiwan Jones, Marcel Reece, and Jamize Olawale to step up and provide a spark for the offense.

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