Following Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills, the Las Vegas Raiders are on a three-game losing streak. While that’s an unfortunate reality, the Raiders are only 3-3, thanks to their hot start, and there are a lot of promising things about the team. Many of those promising things were on display in Sunday’s 33-30 loss.
With Las Vegas dropping 30 points, most of the positives were on the offensive side of the ball. One of those positives were backup running back Mike Washington Jr. The rookie rusher carried the ball nine times, and considering his success, leading the team with 43 rushing yards, fans should expect to see more of Washington.
Mike Washington Jr. likely earned himself more carries with promising Week 6 performance
Again, Washington, who is RB2 behind Ashton Jeanty, finished the game with nine carries for 43 yards and one catch for seven yards. His nine carries were one less than Jeanty’s 10, but his 43 yards were more than Jeanty’s 22. Of course, there’s a lot that goes into the production of each back, but what was noteworthy was how the touches were dispersed.
Washington has been getting carries since Week 1, but this is the closest he has been to Jeanty in terms of rushes in a game.
Ashton Jeanty | Malik Washington Jr. | |
|---|---|---|
Week 1 carries | 23 | 7 |
Week 2 carries | 21 | 3 |
Week 3 carries | 19 | 5 |
Week 4 carries | 15 | 9 |
Week 5 carries | 10 | 1 |
Week 6 carries | 10 | 9 |
As shown in the chart above, the difference in carries between Jeanty and Washington was significant, until Week 6. This could be a result of Jeanty dealing with injuries in recent weeks, or it could be the coaches’ plan to get Las Vegas’ running game going. Whatever the reason, fans should expect to see more of Washington moving forward after his productive outing.
After Sunday’s game, Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak, who also calls the offense, said Washington gave the team “a spark” on Sunday, and the head coach also noted that the rookie running back has practiced well. Kubiak made it clear that all three running backs, Jeanty, Washington, and Dylan Laube, will all continue to play.
On Monday, Kubiak added that the Raiders will need production out of all three backs moving forward. He felt that all the backs ran harder and did a better job of breaking tackles against the Bills, than they had all season. That is, hopefully a sign of what’s to come, as the run game tries to really get rolling.
The more good running backs the better, so it would be great to see Las Vegas get Ashton Jeanty, Mike Washington Jr., and Dylan Laube rolling.
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