Raiders Offense Being Reintroduced To An Old Friend: The Play Action Pass

On Friday night, the Raiders first offensive snap of the game was a play that wasn’t called often in 2017. A play-action pass in the form of a safe rollout by Derek Carr that netted an easy four-yard gain on first down.

Don’t be surprised to see it happen a lot more, too. Jon Gruden has already said as much.

“We’re going to create more vertical shots off play-action this year,” Gruden said in March, also promising to better utilize Carr’s mobility in the process.

Two weeks ago when Peyton Manning stopped into Raiders training camp and coached up Carr on his play-action fakes. Specifically, Manning told Carr to take video of his handoffs and compare them to his play-action passes and correct the subtle differences in technique.

There was conversation earlier in the year that the previous coaching staff didn’t think play action played to Carr’s strengths as a quarterback – possibly one of the reasons why they abandoned it so many times last year. Whatever the case, Carr is working hard on play-action fakes and the stretch zone runs (and fakes) that are so lethal in Kyle Shanahan’s offense are likely to pop up this fall on the good side of the bay.

But don’t worry, Marshawn. You maybe weren’t listening to the broadcast on Friday night, but Rich Gannon had good news for you: Gruden loves to run the ball in the red zone.

twitter: @raidersbeat

Share:

2 thoughts on “Raiders Offense Being Reintroduced To An Old Friend: The Play Action Pass

  1. This is great news. About time. Not sure why Downing didn’t think it was to Carr’s strength. It sure seemed to work with Musgraves offense.Carr’s mobility plays to this kind of scheme.

  2. Carr was compared to Aaron Rodgers by many analysts during his big year in 2016. He’s that kind of QB. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Musgrave was sent packing and Mr. Doesntknowwhathesdoing was put in his place in 2017. Now Carr isn’t even in the conversati
    on anymore. I’m looking forward to giving a big **** you to guys like Colin Cowherd this year who calls the Raiders a “dumpster fire.”

Comments are closed.