Oakland Raiders v Houston Texans: A Few Last Minute Keys To A Wild Card Win
By Kevin Saito
Assert Their Will
Playing without Derek Carr for the first time all year, the team as a whole looked like they’d been suckerpunched last week. The offensive unit in particular, looked dazed, and confused. Of course, Matt McGloin didn’t help the cause by putting up a dreadful performance.
One thing that can help this team though, is going to be the run game. Now, Denver was highly effective in loading the box and taking away the three headed beast that is Latavius Murray, Jalen Richard, and DeAndre Washington. They stifled Oakland’s powerful running game, holding them to just 57 yards on the ground.
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Because McGloin was so ineffective under center, Denver was able to commit more to stopping the run. Oakland is going to need Connor Cook to hit on some short and intermediate passes early. He’s going to have to move the chains to get Houston to back off the line and give Oakland’s backs some room to operate.
If Cook, Amari Cooper, and Michael Crabtree can establish some sort of early rhythm, it’s going to open up the run game, which is going to allow the Raiders to begin asserting their will and dictating the pace of the game to Houston.
Without Donald Penn on the left side, the Raiders will have a line that consists of Austin Howard, Menelik Watson, Rodney Hudson, Kelechi Osemele, and Gabe Jackson. It’s still a fierce, strong, and powerful unit. But they’re going to have to work harder to keep the likes of Jadaveon Clowney from blowing up plays and putting Cook on the ground.
The line is the key. If they can give Cook time to operate and blow open holes when Houston backs off the line, the Raiders will be able to operate and get into a rhtyhm – something they failed to do last week at all.
And if they have any hopes of advancing past this round, it’s essential.