The Las Vegas Raiders are coming off an ugly road loss to the New England Patriots. The 45-17 loss sends the team back to the drawing board to figure out what went wrong.
It was a mess on both sides of the ball, as the team couldn't stop Drake Maye or decipher the Patriots' blitzes. It led to stalled drives and constant defensive injuries.
Let's take a deep dive into the Week 5 analytics vs. the New England Patriots.
Advanced stats for Raiders vs. Patriots
Patriots bring the heat
The Raiders' offensive line has played well in pass protection for most of the year. However, they haven’t faced an onslaught of blitzes either. The Patriots dialed up blitzes at key moments to disrupt the passing game.
While the Patriots blitzed only 23% of the time, the way they blitzed caused the damage. They brought 6+ rushers 17% of the time. This confused the offensive line and Kirk Cousins. Cousins was 4-for-8 against the blitz and 3-for-10 under pressure.
It is on film now, and the Raiders will have to be ready for teams to duplicate this game plan. Klint Kubiak will have to get back to the drawing board to fix the issues.
Raiders secondary struggles
Drake Maye struggled to start the season and was looking for a game to return to form. The Raiders gave him a chance at redemption, and he carved them up for most of the game.
Maye was 4-for-6 deep, throwing two touchdowns. He didn’t miss a dropped dime on the Raiders' secondary last Sunday. Aside from Darien Porter, every player in the Raiders' secondary allowed a completion percentage above 66%.
Raiders are high in man coverage at 22% on the year. It may be time for defensive coordinator Rob Leonard to switch to a zone-heavy defense to help his young group.
Raiders' switch in the run game doesn't work
The Raiders have been a zone football team when running the ball. On Sunday, they changed the philosophy, to no avail. According to SumerSports, they became a power team, running the gap on 49% of their carries.
While the team fell behind quickly, they couldn't get the run game going in the first half. Mike Washington Jr., who thrives in a gap scheme, got only one carry on Sunday. With Jeanty dealing with foot and ankle issues, the team needs to get Washington Jr. involved in the rushing attack.
Klint Kubiak will have to get back to the drawing board and figure out how to fix the running game. If the passing game struggles as it did this past Sunday, the offense could slow down for the rest of the year.
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