The Las Vegas Raiders had an awful performance on both sides of the ball in Week 7, as they suffered a 31-0 blowout loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The effort was nothing short of embarrassing, as the Raiders failed to score any points while recording just 95 total yards and three first downs.
After the shutout, Las Vegas is now averaging just 14.7 points per game. This is the second-lowest mark in the entire NFL, ahead of only the Tennessee Titans, whose 13.7 points per game with a rookie quarterback got head coach Brian Callahan fired.
Kansas City is obviously the gold standard in the league, especially as it pertains to Andy Reid's offense. Although it is spearheaded by a superhero in Patrick Mahomes, their play-calling and design ran laps around anything Chip Kelly and the Raiders' offense were able to achieve on Sunday.
Pete Carroll does not hold back about Raiders' offensive struggles
There has been no hiding the fact that Las Vegas is struggling to begin the 2025 campaign. In four of their first seven games, they've either been blown out, failed to score a touchdown, or, on two occasions, both.
Carroll discussed the issues following Sunday's embarrassing blowout loss, which was, somehow, not even their most lopsided defeat of the season. He revealed what he believes has been the biggest issue with the unit.
"It feels like we're not finding the plays that we need to chunk in between the routine part of the approach. Where we're throwing the ball underneath, we're getting some completions, we're running the football, but the chunk plays don't seem to be appearing for us, and that makes a difference," Carroll said. "It's those chunk plays that change the rhythm of the drive, and those just have gone quiet for us. And when we play really well on the other side of the ball, like last week, it wasn't apparent, but we were not really making the big plays last week either."
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Carroll also claimed that the Raiders attempted to establish the run early on against the Chiefs, but were forced to adjust and completely abandon their game plan, despite not wanting to.
"We had the ball ten snaps in the first quarter because we couldn't make a first down, (and) we couldn't stop them, so it's not just one thing," Carroll said. "We came into this game really wanting to run the football, figuring that would be a key element of this makeup of this game. But we just couldn't get there, and we didn't change our mind about that at all. We didn't miss that thought. We just couldn't get in charge of the down and distance well enough."
While the intention to establish the run may have been there, that is not what transpired on the field. Ashton Jeanty had just one first-quarter carry and finished the day with six rushes for 21 yards. Both of these were career lows, and he was targeted just once in the passing game.
Carroll is correct that the Raiders have failed to connect on chunk plays, as their longest play of the day went for just 14 yards. The team has struggled to consistently move the ball all season, as their 276.4 yards per game are the fifth-fewest in the league.
The inability to move the ball has led to far too many three-and-outs and one of the league's most unproductive offenses. Hopefully, Carroll and Kelly can put their heads together and figure something out during the bye week.