Oakland Raiders Review: Offensive woes continued in Minnesota

Darren Waller’s consistency

What was consistent was Darren Waller, though. Waller held the edge with Everson Griffen on four plays and allowed a three-yard gain on all those plays. He even went up against Eric Kendricks and pushed him back multiple times.

But with that comes the lack of consistency. The offensive line was all over the place. They didn’t get a body on Kendricks on every play, Carr wasn’t looking for Smith or Kendricks on every play, and Waller was getting matched up against a linebacker or a safety all day which should’ve been a much bigger day for him, but it wasn’t.

What’s also true is the first touchdown for the Raiders was a great play design which Carr killed the original play and audibled to a new one. J.J. Nelson motioned in a reverse position when the ball was hiked and then ran a wheel route on the play fake holding the linebacker on the running back in the backfield and leaving the wheel-route wide open. What also happened on that play was Waller ran a post route in the middle of the field turning Smith’s hips so he couldn’t make it across the field in time.

The few bright spots were the tight end screen to Waller and a few plays here and there but nothing was consistent. Kendricks destroyed the offensive line all day by getting off blocks and removing running lanes, including cut back lanes, and in pass blocking the offense was average at best.

Receivers weren’t getting in open space and the only real person who was able to catch passes was Waller. The 2nd half gameplan was easy: double Waller.