Oakland Raiders: The good, bad, and ugly from week three loss to Miami

Ugly: Red Zone Offense

The Raiders are not a team who can afford to leave points on the field. They don’t put up many points as it is, which means they can afford to leave points on the field even less.

And on Sunday, against the Dolphins, they had two separate opportunities on two different drives – from the two-yard line or less – and walked away with just three points total. Three points. Out of two different trips inside the two-yard line.

Think the entire complexion of the game would have changed, had they cashed those two gimmes in, and put 14 points up on the board, rather than a meager three points? It seems like a pretty safe bet it would have turned out to be a much different game.

For the day, the Raiders went a dismal 2-5 inside the red zone for 10 points – the first drive touchdown toss to Jordy Nelson, and the aforementioned field goal. That’s it.

Had they not failed on their subsequent trips into the red zone, they would have put themselves in a position to be up big at the halftime break, rather than by just three points.

That 2-5 performance in the red zone though, is part of a trend of this team not being able to score inside the 20. On the year, the Raiders are just four-for-nine in the red zone – a meager 44 percent success rate – and it’s not like they’re scoring touchdowns every time they get inside the 20 either.

This team can’t afford to give away opportunities to put points on the board. They need to tighten up their red zone offense and actually punch some of these chances into the endzone.