Oakland Raiders at New York Jets: 3 things we learned

Raiders loss the line of scrimmage

All week leading up to the game, the matchup to focus on was how this raider run game would fair against the Jets rush defense, and that battle was easily won by New York. The Raiders only managed 68 yards on 22 carries, and Josh Jacobs was held to just 34 yards.

The Raiders have been a well-balanced team most of the season, but their inability to get a solid run game really exposed some of the weaknesses on the roster. The biggest being their lack of explosive plays in the passing game when they can’t use play action. Derek Carr’s longest pass play for the game was 19 yards to Darren Waller midway through the second quarter. And he only completed one pass that traveled over 10 yards in the air.

There was a significant drop by Tyrell Williams that would have gone for a big play, but overall the Jets kept everything in front of them and forced Carr to a 4.7-yard average. Coming into the game, Carr was averaging a league-high 9.2 the past six weeks, according to Vic Tafur of the Athletic.

The Raiders are not a team capable of just dropping back and throwing it around without a least some sort of running threat. These receivers are not good enough to consistently win or apparently catch, and with no one able to stretch the defense beside Williams, the Jets were not fearful of anything getting behind them.

And the offensive line continues to have up and down performances as of late. Their inability to win at the point of attack most of the game was surprising even with the Jets’ excellent run defense. They have been getting bailed out at times these past few weeks by Jacobs’s ability to break tackles, but that was not the case on Sunday.

This weekend will probably be the worst performance running the ball we’ll see from Oakland as they don’t face another defense that is even top ten in rushing yards allowed. However, they got a very rude awakening in New York.