The Raiders’ season is over just in time to stop the bleeding. Since week 9, the offense has been responsible for 15 touchdowns in 8 games. Their scoring average fell from 26.6 points per game in the first half of the season to 18.2 in the second half.
Jack Del Rio has been watching the same offense that you have, and he’s not happy. Via Jimmy Durkin of the Oakland Tribune, this was Del Rio after Sunday’s loss to Kansas City:
I don’t know if you’d call it that, we just have not been what we were early in the year. Early in the year, we were able to generate some explosives and run the ball better. We didn’t run it very well. Throw for some chunks of yards, we just haven’t been able to do that basically. Tonight was an example of that. We had one explosive play on the night. That’s a far cry from what we had generated early in the year, so we have work to do.
Injuries, of course, have contributed to the problem – particularly for Amari Cooper who hasn’t been close to healthy since the Steelers game. That said, the offense seemed to lack the creativity that earned Bill Musgrave so much praise in October and certainly lost any semblance of a vertical attack.
Whatever the issues, Del Rio and Musgrave have time to figure it out before the next game and everyone will agree with the head coach – they have work to do.
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