Oakland Raiders: 5 keys to victory vs. New York Jets
By John Buhler
The Oakland Raiders will host the New York Jets on Sunday at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Here are five keys to victory for the Silver and Black.
The Oakland Raiders look to improve to 2-0 when they host the New York Jets on Sunday afternoon in Week 2. Kickoff from Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum will be at 1:05 p.m. PT on September 17.
This will be the Raiders’ home opener, as they beat the Tennessee Titans on the road in Nashville last week, 26-16. With the Jets being very much a rebuilding team in the AFC East, this could be a game where the Raiders can win it in the first half. That is assuming Oakland goes out and executes its game plan at a high level.
Dropping a home game to a team like the Jets by overlooking them is unacceptable. With the AFC West looking like clearly the best division in the AFC, Oakland cannot afford to drop any bad games this year outside of divisional play. Oakland has the players to go out and win the AFC West for the first time since 2002.
Looking ahead to Sunday afternoon’s game with New York, here are the five keys to victory to beating the Jets in Week 2. With a Raiders win, maybe the Silver and Black will be all by themselves atop the AFC West standings as we enter late September?
Avoid the special teams miscue
Simply put, Oakland can’t give the ball back to the Jets through offensive or special teams miscues. New York does not have the offensive firepower to keep up with Oakland should the Raiders’ offense be firing on all cylinders.
That being said, the Jets do have solid defensive personnel under a defensive-minded head coach Todd Bowles. If the Jets can muddy it up, they can make the Raiders sweat a bit in a tight ball game. In short, the one thing the Raiders cannot do is play awful on special teams.
Last week, the NFL saw kicker Giorgio Tavecchio make four of four field goals, including two from 52 yards, in his NFL debut. Oakland was able to recover Ryan Succop‘s awful onside kick attempt thanks to a heads up play by rookie safety Shalom Luani.
The Raiders played well on special teams last week. Can they do it again? Probably, as this franchise prides itself on being sound in the crucial third phase of the game. If Oakland really needs a big play out of the special teams guys, just have Marquette King boot one of his signature punts that pins New York inside of their own five-yard line.