Las Vegas Raiders vs New Orleans Saints 2022 Week 8: Studs and Duds
Las Vegas Raiders vs New Orleans Saints 2022 Week 8: Studs and Duds
Dud – Josh McDaniels and the Offense
Speaking of tough calls and decisions, Josh McDaniels urns another dud this week 4 the team’s overall performance and a few bad play calls. People can talk about execution and players not doing their job but as the head coach, McDaniels is Ultimate really responsible for all of that and he failed to deliver on Sunday.
As we already mentioned, the Raiders were outplayed and outcoached by a beat-up and underachieving Saints team that suddenly looked like the best team in the NFL on Sunday. Dennis Allen is not exactly a Hall of Fame head coach but he ran circles around both McDaniels and the entire Raiders staff.
The worst moment of the game for McDaniels was early on as the Raiders faced a third and a short one on their own 46 and he completely fluffed the call. Rather than trying to impose their will on the Saints by either running it with Jacobs or simply running a sneak with Carr under center, McDaniels calls a sweep with Davante Adams that gets blown up in the two-yardd for a two yard loss. Instead of punting or trying to get the first down with the starting offense, the Raiders run a horrid fake punt that also gets blown up in the backfield. New Orleans took a 10-0 lead on the ensuing drive and never looked back.
The decision to hand the ball off to Adams was the most puzzling but is something that McDaniels seems insistent on doing. Before this year, Adams has ZERO rushing attempts in 8 years but McDaniels has called 3 run plays for him in 2022 that have resulted in a grand total of -1 yards. Adams is an incredible athlete but you want him out in space and destroying DBs, not trying to evade defensive linemen behind the line of scrimmage.
The offense was humming the last few weeks due to the production from the run game but we have still seen major offensive issues where guys are running into each other or long stretches where the offense goes stone-cold. McDaniels was supposed to be this offensive genius but he has looked anything but as the offense has sputtered when it matters most, especially in Week 8.