Oakland Raiders: Week 9 Notebook

Nov 2, 2014; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks outside linebacker Bruce Irvin (51) tackles Oakland Raiders running back Maurice Jones-Drew (21) for a loss during the second half at CenturyLink Field. Seattle defeated Oakland 30-24. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Running Game Gets Nowhere

Perhaps the biggest issue on Sunday was an expected one as with the relatively poor run blocking offensive line facing the Seattle Seahawks outstanding defensive front the Oakland rushing attack was stalled often as on most runs up the middle there were Seattle players already in the backfield before Derek Carr handed off the football, leading to a repeating theme of various one and two yard gains at best while offensive coordinator had to continue to keep a pass heavy offense with a rookie quarterback because of those struggles.

No Raiders running back broke 50 yards rushing on Sunday and while all three running backs earned a first down in the screen game, 37 yards in total rushing on the day drove home the fact that despite the offensive line protecting Derek Carr well this season, the run blocking has left much to be desired as there has been a lack of balance in the offense because the ground game needs to be abandoned so often with no yardage being gained when Greg Olson does call a running play.

It should be noted that Terrelle Pryor’s scrambling ability skew the numbers from last season for the Raiders in the run blocking game, but halfway through the season one of their biggest problems on offense is keeping themselves in manageable situations on third down. That can’t be accomplished the way they are running the football, but with a difficult schedule and little options to improve the poor performances it is hard to see the struggles getting significantly better over the next eight games as frustrating as it is to watchoffs go for 1-3 yards at a time whenever the Raiders run the football.