Oakland Raiders v. Kansas City Chiefs: Five Things That Must Happen

Take Some Shots Downfield

One of the most troubling aspects of Oakland’s offensive struggles this year, is the lack of a vertical passing game. Last year, Derek Carr flourished in Bill Musgrave‘s system – shocking, given how traditionally conservative Musgrave is as an offensive coordinator.

But Carr looked every bit the franchise quarterback, slinging balls downfield and making big plays.

Next: Raiders Must Re-Discover Their Swagger

We all thought that with the departure of the conservative, even vanilla at times, Musgrave, we were going to get a full out air-raid offense with new OC Todd Downing. We’d thought that with more freedom to create and an innovative, attack downfield mind like Downing’s, Oakland’s offense would take a big step forward and be one of the most potent in the league.

What we’ve gotten instead though, is an offense even more pedestrian than anything Musgrave could have dredged up. The Raiders have slipped from a top-ten offense last season, to one that barely ranks above Buffalo and Miami at the bottom of the rankings – thirtieth overall, at about 278 yards per game, if you’re scoring at home.

And the thing that stands out most about this offensive freefall is the fact that Carr is not taking shots downfield. Like, almost at all. Currently, he’s dead last in the league in terms of passes twenty yards or more downfield with just ten such passes. Ten.

This dink and dunk offense filled with little more than three yard outs, it seems, is killing any offensive mojo Oakland may have had from last season. Not only that, but by failing to take shots downfield, it’s allowing opposing defenses to bunch up close to the line – which, in turn, kills the run game.

Carr and Downing have got to do something to fix this – and fix it fast. They’ve got to stretch the field and loosen up those opposing defenses. They can’t afford to let a defense have all eleven players practically sitting on the line of scrimmage at the snap.

Oakland’s offensive freefall goes hand in hand with their unwillingness to take shots downfield. And that’s something that needs to change.

They’ll have some shots against the Chiefs who are twenty-ninth in the league, giving up 378 yards per game. But it means that the Raiders are going to have to do something they haven’t done in a month – be a good offensive football team.

At this point, with their season hanging in the balance, it’s beyond critical.