After a 2-4 start, the Raiders have a long list of players and coaches under the microscope, but no one in the building has more to prove moving forward than offensive coordinator Chip Kelly.
Kelly has taken criticism from every direction, and even took a public jab from head coach Pete Carroll last week. One of the themes that has been associated with Kelly of late is the idea that he has been “overthinking” the Raiders’ offense.
This week, Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers talked about the game on Sunday, and Myers believes Kelly is getting in his own way with play calling at times.
“Chip [Kelly] has not gotten into the rhythm that I would like to see from a play calling point of view,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast. “The play… he tried to get the ball to [Alex] Cappa, that was overthinking things. That was trying to be too cute. And there’s been multiple times that we could say, ‘Oh, okay, you try to outthink the room.’ You try to think, ‘Oh, they’ll never think of this.'”
“You know why they never think of this?” Myers continued. “Because nobody does it.”
“You shouldn’t do that. That doesn’t make any sense. Even running [Ashton] Jeanty right behind Stone [Forsythe] after Kolton Miller goes down in the Bears game, right? It was like, no, that’s the left tackle just now coming in basically off the street. He hasn’t got any kind of lather going, and now you’re going to go right towards him, follow behind him, and he gets the wrong communication, [Parham] gets the wrong communication, they’re going different directions. There are inconsistencies with this Raiders offense, and that’s with Chip Kelly as well.”
As others have pointed out, Kelly has shown a tendency to get away from what works when he gets near the endzone and drives have been stalling as a result.
This week, the Raiders travel to Kansas City and even though the Chiefs have a better run defense than the Titans, they are still giving up 4.7 yards per carry over the first six games of the season. The Raiders will need a better game from Geno Smith to beat the Chiefs, but Kelly and the offense should still be able to lean on Jeanty.
That is, after all, why the Raiders drafted him with the sixth-overall pick, right?
x: @raidersbeat
Yeah, I don’t know what the heck that play was. Tackle eligible passes are rarely successful and amen it is, it’s usually a team and player who has run it successfully consistently.
Then again, Cappa has been a bad guard for a while, so maybe Chip it’s trying him out to see if he can be a bad tight end?
It was a horrible play call, but again Geno sucks & his HC defends him but calls out Chip. Id trust Chip with another year than Geno/Pete/Patriot west 2
So if Jeanty is super important, hire the BSU Offensive Coordinator
watching the Raiders offense is terrible!, One of the biggest things I see is the receivers all have their route assignments and try to execute, however the raiders never use more than 1 running back at a time, so the opposing defense always keys on Ashton Jeanty, if he does not get the ball, then the defense only needs a slight adjustment while rushing to change and go after Geno Smith, the Raiders are not capable of single back run down your throat kind of team. How long are the Raiders going to keep this up with Chip Kelly? I am Happy the Raiders beat Tenn., and got a win, but 20 to 10 is not a serious win. it was more of a the Titans lost vs the Raiders won scenerio. The team still looks like a division III college team. unless there are some serious changes I see another 40 to 6 at KC…. one last item, why does it take the Raiders 20+ years to rebuild when other teams are doing it in less than 5, ex: Washington, Patriots etc:
Because Mark is a moron who hires morons like himself
Just keep lacing em up. And go out there hit somebody every play until you hear the whistle.