It has been a disappointing start to the season for Chip Kelly’s offense and one of Kelly’s loudest critics in recent weeks has been former Raiders’ great Lincoln Kennedy.
Kennedy has talked about changes he’d like to see Kelly make to his game-planning and overall scheme, and this week Kennedy talked about the one dynamic to Kelly’s offense he still can’t wrap his brain around.
“What I’m most perplexed about is how it seems, at times this season, where the Raiders offense could come out and click like a well-oiled machine, not have a hiccup between the 20s… then other times… even if they go back to that same play that worked before, it doesn’t work. I’m still trying to figure that out,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show podcast.
“I’m trying to understand that dynamic. I understand teams make adjustments. I get that. But at the same point, there should be an ebb of flow to the offense once you get things going,” Kennedy continued. “There shouldn’t be a reason why you have a 19 or 20-play drive that ends with a field goal. Hell no. But there also shouldn’t be a reason why you get first down and go on the three-yard line and you’re trying to do a tackle eligible. Hell no… The fact that you bring two extra offensive linemen and that’s the play you go to?”
“To open up [on] first down after a big turnover, the crowd is into it. What better way that you could think about rallying up your offensive line than on the heels of that turnover. The crowd is still into where we’re at home. Run that **** ball. Run it. Run it. Run it right here and get in that end zone. You don’t see that. Oh, well, we’re going to do a tackle eligible to a backup guard who hasn’t played that much.”
Kennedy is one of a handful of media types who have questioned Kelly’s decision to throw the ball to an offensive lineman on first-and-goal from the 3-yard-line, and even though the Raiders managed to beat the Titans on Sunday, they have a lot to clean up on offense if they want to compete with the Chiefs this week in Kansas City.
With a contract worth a reported $6 million per year, Kelly is the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL and through the first six weeks of the season, only two teams are averaging fewer points per game than the Raiders – the Titans and Browns.
The Titans fired their head coach this week and Kevin Stefanski is squarely on the hot seat in Cleveland.
It would take an unprecedented internal collapse for the Raiders to fire Pete Carroll, but if the offense doesn’t improve dramatically, it’s fair to wonder if Kelly’s job might be one to keep an eye on.
x: @raidersbeat
Stefanski is a better coach than Carroll but he’s been saddled with horrible qbs but the Browns d is generally decent. Cleveland’s problem is Berry the GM and their rotten owner Haslem that is Jerry Jones wannabe.
So is the Miami coach. The GM matters so much more which is why we suck
Yeah, I think if the Raiders could get Stefanski, I’d drop Carroll in an instant. The Haslamsc are maybe the one of the few ownership groups as bad as Mark Davis, so maybe they could make a trade!
Like everyone else, I agree the Cappa play was dumb, but overall I thought Sunday was Kelly doing the best he could with what he had. It’s a sad state of affairs when running the ball on 1st and Goal from the 3 becomes a dicey affair because the Raiders line gives up so many negative running plays. Of course, Geno takes a lot of sacks, too, and throws lots of picks, so running the ball was probably better choice.
Brock Bowers is the reason why the offense is not clicking. Because of his injury he cannot run many of the patterns he ran last year.
They should also get the running backs involved more in downfield patterns