The Las Vegas Raiders went into their Week 12 matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs looking to move their record back to .500 before the bye week. After winning two straight behind interim head coach Antonio Pierce, the Raiders have the Miami Dolphins everything they could handle on the road in Week 11, though they fell 20-13.
In Week 12, the Raiders offense came out on fire against the Chiefs, putting up the first 14 points of the game, but it has been all downhill since then. In fact, the Silver and Black were outscored 31-3 to finish out that game, mustering only a third quarter field goal, which would be the last time the Raiders have put up points since.
After being shutout in the fourth quarter, the Raiders then went on to hit the bye week, and put up a goose egg in Week 14, one of the worst offensive showings of the NFL season. As the Raiders look to their next opponent, the Los Angeles Chargers, what can they do to end this terrible scoring drought?
Raiders offense in neutral heading into Week 15
The Raiders decided to turn to Aidan O'Connell over Jimmy Garoppolo at the quarterback spot after the firing of Josh McDaniels, and he has looked good at times. However, he has struggled in a big way also, and Sunday was a glaring example of a guy who is still getting his feet wet at the NFL level.
The issue here is that the Raiders cannot afford to struggle on offense in Week 15, especially with elite players on that side of the ball in Davante Adams and Josh Jacobs. In Week 14, Jakobi Meyers was non-existent, and Hunter Renfrow struggled, so leaning on Jacobs and Adams has to be the plan against Los Angeles.
We have not seen an effort on defense from the Raiders like we saw on Sunday in quite some time, and that is not something that we can rely on every week. O'Connell, or whoever is the starting quarterback in Week 15, has to be better, or else Las Vegas is in danger of losing at home to Easton Stick at quarterback.