Oakland Raiders: Keys To Victory Over Baltimore Ravens

September 13, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders fullback Marcel Reece (45) scores a touchdown in front of tight end Clive Walford (88) and Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Leon Hall (29) during the fourth quarter at O.co Coliseum. The Bengals defeated the Raiders 33-13. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Sustain Drives, Put the Ball in the Endzone

One of Oakland’s Achille’s Heels last week was their inability to sustain drives. Oakland had 12 third down opportunities and converted just three of them. Needless to say, a 25 percent success rate on third down conversions is not going to get it done.

For the game, Oakland finished with 16 first downs – though many of those came in garbage time with Cincinnati willing to give up the soft yards underneath. If the Raiders can’t manage to sustain drives, they’ll be playing the majority of the game on their own side of the field again and make it another long afternoon.

Derek Carr and this Raiders offense simply have to put all the pieces together and start clicking. For his part, Carr needs to come out and play better. He looked tentative last week. He didn’t cycle through his receivers and threw the overwhelming majority of his twelve attempted passes to either Amari Cooper or Latavius Murray.

Carr has to be more patient, look less skittish, and find his weapons – because this season they are plentiful. On any given play, he can choose to target any number of players and have some success. The benefit of spreading the ball all around is that Baltimore won’t be able to sit on just one player. Carr needs to make life as difficult on the Ravens as possible. He can’t help them out by turning what can be a dynamic offense into a one trick pony – a one trick pony that gets shut down time after time.

Next: Neutralize Their Limited Weapons