Raiders vs Chiefs 2023 Week 12: Studs and Duds

Raiders RB Josh Jacobs - Stud

Before the game, we talked about Josh Jacobs and the Raiders run game potentially having a big day against the Chiefs defense. They have not been elite against the run all season and that proved to be the case in week 12 as well.  Josh Jacobs finished the day with 20 carries for 110 yards and a touchdown but unfortunately the bulk of those yards came in the second quarter on a 63 yard touchdown run.

Jacobs deserves a ton of credit for his effort on that play and is rightfully in the studs category for giving the Raiders a two score lead at the time, but he was mostly shut down aside from that one play.  There were signs of life from the Raiders run game against the New York teams and there will certainly be a lot of positives to take from the Chiefs game as well, but the Raiders run game is clearly not a strength at this time.

 One of the main areas the Raiders have struggled in the last two weeks has been in short yardage and that is a combination of play calling and execution. The Raiders released fullback Jakob Johnson a few weeks back and he has not seen any action recently but he probably would help in these short yardage situations.

Jacobs clearly still has the juice to be an incredibly effective running back and it was great to see his burst on that 63-yarder but there are issues with the offensive line and scheme that need to be worked out if he's going to be back to his All-Pro self. Hopefully, the Raiders take the bye week to work on that so we can continue to see Jacobs in the studs category this year.