Lincoln Kennedy thinks Raiders need more plays under center
The Raiders’ running game is broken and on Sunday, the passing game wasn’t far behind.
Kirk Cousins was pressured 13 times by the Patriots’ defense in week 5, and it was the least comfortable Cousins has looked in the pocket all year.
Anyone watching the Raiders’ offense on Sunday could see there is a lot they need to work on as a unit, and former Raider great Lincoln Kennedy shared one of the adjustments he would like to see on his Wednesday podcast.
“I still think that it would behoove this offense to put Kirk Cousins under center, but I’m not coaching,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show.
“Put him under center and try to use the play action that way because no one is fearing it out of the shotgun or the pistol. They’re not fearing it, and they’re not going for it. So there’s a lot of things to be desired. This team is still learning. I think they could be competitive. I just said coming into season, I would hope they double their amount of wins they had last year.”
What is interesting about Kennedy’s comments is that head coach Klint Kubiak is probably in agreement.
Kubiak prefers his QB under center
Just a month ago, Mark Schlereth of FOX’s NFL broadcast team shared a conversation he had with Kubiak prior to the regular season opener.
“They got into a bunch of under center stuff [prior to the game in week 1]. They were… the number two in the league at 52.6 percent of the time when [Kubiak] was with Seattle last year and then the Rams were the only ones that were under center at a higher percentage,” Schlereth said after the Raiders week 1 win over the Dolphins.
“He’s going to use it. So, I asked him, ‘What is it about under center?’ And I said my perspective is you open up your run game, so you’re not eliminating… [around] 35 percent of your run game. So, it opens up your run game, and it opens up your play action because your quarterback has to turn his back to the defense which makes everybody’s feet stop. Safeties and linebackers stop.’
“But you know what he said? And this was something I hadn’t thought of, or I hadn’t really talked about. He goes, ‘My number one thing about being under center, it makes the defense play legit, and they can’t rush the passer as well because every fake, they’ve got to stop. They’ve got to protect the run. So, it makes our pass protection, our keys in protection so much better.”
Raiders among the NFL leaders in under center snaps
They could be under center more, but it’s worth noting that Kubiak’s offense this year is near the top of the league in under center snaps.
According to Sharp Football Analysis, the Raiders have been under center for 45.8 percent of plays this year, which is 11th-most in the league.
The Bills (55.3 percent) have the highest rate of under center snaps this year, followed by the 49ers (54.6), Seahawks (53.2), Falcons (51.3), Lions (50.6), Patriots (47.3), Jaguars (46.8), Bears (46.7), Ravens (46.1) and Rams (46.0).
Something to keep in mind is that it’s still early in the year (the sample size isn’t large) and a lot of the data through the first five weeks has been dictated by game flow.
For example, the Raiders played from behind against the Patriots and were forced to run 75 percent of their plays from shotgun.
In a more competitive game, there is no way Kubaik’s offense would be in shotgun for three out of every four plays.
