Oakland Raiders: Midseason Report Card For The Offense

Offensive Line

Simply put, the offensive line hasn’t looked anywhere near as dominant and intimidating as it did last season. They’ve not been blowing open holes for the running game and their pass protection, at times, has been lacking.

And this, despite returning starters Donald Penn, Gabe Jackson, Rodney Hudson, and Kelechi Osemele, to the line.

Again, the struggles of the line have a lot to do with a change in the blocking scheme implemented by Todd Downing. This line was built to line up and maul people. It’s not a finesse line. Not that they aren’t athletic enough or capable of running Downing’s scheme, it just doesn’t play to their strengths.

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Downing has stripped away the nasty, physical nature that made Oakland’s line so intimidating and effective last season and has replaced it with a watered down version.

A watered down version that’s not doing a particularly good job in the running game and oh yeah, has already surrendered almost as many sacks (13) through eight games, as it did all of last season (16).

Now, to be fair, over the last three games, the line has been much improved. At least, in the area of pass protection. They’ve allowed just one sack, a pair of hits, and very few pressures. For the most part, Carr’s protection has been pretty flawless over the last few weeks. And for the year, he’s still one of the better protected quarterbacks in the league.

And despite getting fantastic protection up front, Carr hasn’t been on point. Over that three game span, since his return from missing a game with the transverse-process fracture in his back, Carr has thrown for 901 yards on 62 percent passing (81 of 131) and has four touchdowns against four interceptions.

The pass protection has been there the last three games. And over those three games, the run blocking hasn’t been bad. Oakland has run for 251 yards on 57 carries for an average of 4.4 yards per carry.

So, despite running a scheme that doesn’t necessarily play to their strengths, the line has done its job. They’re just not as physically imposing and dominant up front as they were last year – and much of that falls on the shoulders of the OC.

GRADE: B