Oakland Raiders v Buffalo Bills: Five Things That Must Happen To Win

Vary Up the Offensive Game Plan

Suffice it to say, last week, OC Todd Downing finally looked like a man capable of running an NFL offense. And like somebody who should be running an NFL offense.

Against a tough Kansas City defense, Downing took the shackles off of Derek Carr and his offensive unit, calling a game that had the Chiefs back on their heels. For the first time this year, we saw more play action called.

Despite having a trio of backs in Marshawn Lynch, Jalen Richard, and DeAndre Washington who are a legitimate threat to break off a big run, the Raiders entered the game with Kansas City having run the fewest play action passes in the league – and it wasn’t even close.

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Through six games, the Raiders had run just 12 play action passes. For context, the team with the next fewest was Pittsburgh and they ran play action 25 times.

If you have a legitimate threat in the running game – and the Raiders do – play action is valuable. It can freeze a defense for the second or two a receiver needs to get into space to make a play. And yet, for whatever reason – and Downing had many – the Raiders didn’t utilize an important piece of their playbook.

And yet, against the Chiefs, Downing found a way to incorporate more play action into the game plan, running nine play action passes – and had tremendous success doing it. On those nine play action passes, the Raiders totaled 89 yards and a touchdown on four complete passes.

Another thing we saw against Kansas City we haven’t seen much of from Downing and Carr this season is taking some shots downfield. Thanks to throwing some deeper routes, Jared Cook finally showed up and Amari Cooper finally got off.

Those deeper shots kept the Chiefs on their heels and allowed the Raiders to stand toe to toe with an offense that was having its way with Oakland’s defense. Stretching the Kansas City defense the way they did kept the Chiefs guessing and kept the Raiders moving by allowing for some plays underneath.

If the Raiders are going to beat the Bills, they are absolutely going to need to have an offensive game plan as varied as the one they ran against the Chiefs. They’re going to need to run play action and take some shots deep as well.

Like they did to Kansas City, Downing and Carr will need to keep the Bills guessing and on their heels. They need to attack and force the issue, rather than sit back and simply “take what the defense gives them.”

If the Raiders want to win, they have to put their feet on Buffalo’s throat and take what they want.