Offensive struggles continue
Obviously, head coach Antonio Pierce shoulders the blame for both sides of the ball playing terribly. But I don't think he has much of a hand in how the offense runs with all of its intricacies.
But his biggest offensive mistake thus far has been the hiring of OC Luke Getsy, and by proxy, OL coach James Cregg.
Watching Luke Getsy's offense on Sunday against the Panthers felt like watching Todd Downing be the Raiders' offensive coordinator in 2017. The same awful sequence played on repeat: run, run, pass.
That's it. That was all the imagination and creativity that the Raiders could muster on offense. Almost every run was between the tackles, and almost every throw was near the first down marker. Tough to figure out how the defense positioned themselves well throughout the game with that incredible variety to defend.
Other puzzling concepts played out on Sunday as well, like using Brock Bowers exclusively as a blocker on multiple third-and-long plays, and stubbornly trying to run the ball despite the Raiders' complete inability to do so.
Why use our most dynamic weapon as a right tackle in situations where we need him most? It was like watching Arthur Smith handcuff Kyle Pitts to the offensive line in Atlanta.
And why continue to do the same thing over and over again, and expect a different result? That was Albert Einstein's definition of insanity. Sometimes, you just have to make changes with how you run, where you run, when you run, or who you run.
Or, Getsy can continue to call runs up the middle, on early downs, with Zamir White, behind a shaky offensive line until teams just feel bad enough to let them through.
Through two games, the one quarter of offensive brilliance has been the fourth quarter of Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens. It's hard to even feel good about that now, knowing the ineptitude of the Ravens to put games away.
But that is neither here nor there; the Raiders are better when Brock Bowers and Davante Adams get the ball. When they are not the focal point of the offense, Las Vegas struggles to move downfield. Those two are so tough to cover because they can catch balls, open up other players with their gravity, and draw penalties that result in first downs.
However, the Raiders would rather prove themselves right with what they said in the preseason: "We want to establish the run." Well, sometimes you have to abandon things that are not working well for you.
White and the running game have been a major issue for the Raiders and they have shown absolutely zero improvement through three weeks.
The Panthers, through two games, got run all over, but even they were good enough to stop the Raiders rushing attack. White has shown through three games that he can only take what the offensive line creates, and cannot do things for himself or pave his own way.
It feels ridiculous to still be mentioning Josh Jacobs' name at this point, but it has to be dawning on Raiders fans that he bailed the team out on numerous occasions during his tenure.
Gardner Minshew was not the problem, nor the solution on Sunday. He made his patented bonehead play late in the game when it did not matter anymore, and he was up-and-down throughout the contest. As expected.
He seemingly could not operate in a clean pocket against the Panthers, which I do not blame him for, because it must have been so thoroughly shocking that there were no defenders near him at times.
That being said, he was still brought to the ground a handful of times, and was unable to lead the Raiders on more than one meaningful scoring drive. It's not Aidan O'Connell time yet, but it may be close.
OL coach James Cregg clearly has the wrong scheme, or the wrong guys, and perhaps the wrong running back. He was incredibly successful in San Francisco but if he needed to do a complete overhaul of the offensive line, he should have done so.
Instead, he has made an injury-prone and relatively inexperienced offensive line completely retrace their steps and learn an entirely new blocking scheme while also factoring in a new OC and a new RB.
Whatever is happening in the offensive line room needs to change dramatically, because as Pierce says, "it starts with the big boys up front."
The defense won't be able to bail out the offense all year, as evidenced on Sunday. The offense has to figure it out themselves, and it starts at the top.