The Autumn(Re)Wind: Breaking down the Raiders offense

Pass Protection

The Raiders have the benefit of a big, athletic offensive line who can be called upon to perform multiple blocking schemes and techniques at a high level. The Raiders like to be in man protection and combo protection on their quick game passes.

Man is simple, each offensive lineman takes a rusher and the backs in protection take a blitzer. Combo protection is where two offensive linemen will man protect and the remaining 3 will slide towards the side where Rodney Hudson thinks a stunt is coming.

The drop-back passing game is where you’ll see slide protection schemes. Most common slide protections leaves the backside tackle 1 on 1 with the edge rusher and the remaining 4 OL will “slide” away. This helps pick up blitzes and forces rushers to change their path to the QB. The Raiders also commonly used a “full slide” protection plan.

This asks a RB or TE (or both) to block the edge rusher on one side of the formation while the entire offensive line slides away and essentially zone blocks the remaining rushers.