In Week 15 against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Las Vegas Raiders literally set offensive football back multiple decades. Not only were they shut out, they netted just 75 yards of offense. The only other time in franchise history they did this was in 1961, before the AFL-NFL merger.
According to the Associated Press's Josh Dubow, the Raiders are also the first team in the Super Bowl era with six straight games where they allowed four or more sacks while also rushing for less than 75 yards.
That level of ineptitude has many tentacles, and, if anything, it's gotten worse since offensive coordinator Chip Kelly was made a scapegoat for it. It took one game as the starter for quarterback Kenny Pickett to call a spade a spade there, as he cited predictability in the Raiders' game plan.
Raiders' ineptitude at OT proves no QB has a chance to succeed
Raider Nation was briefly invigorated by Pickett getting a start on Sunday, but it was ultimately the same old thing as the previous 13 games with Geno Smith under center. Pickett was sacked four times, and if he wasn't as mobile as he is, that number would've been way higher.
The Raiders' offensive line has been a topic of conversation and criticism going back to training camp, starting with how the interior starting spots were mixed up. Losing the unit's two best players, left tackle Kolton Miller and right guard Jackson Powers-Johnson, has exacerbated their issues.
No team easily survives notable offensive line injuries, but the Raiders' issues up front have been uniquely their own on a lot of levels. The crew wasn't performing well even with these two players on the field.
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According to NFL Senior Researcher Tony Holzman-Escareno, per Next Gen Stats, the Raiders have two of the only three offensive lineman in the league who have allowed 10 or more sacks in pass protection this season: DJ Glaze and Stone Forsythe.
Glaze's struggles at right tackle are fairly well-documented, and not surprising to see in this context. The more amazing part is that Forsythe did not start in place of the injured Miller at left tackle until Week 5, so the 11.5 sacks Next Gen Stats has demerited him with have come over 10 games.
For everyone this side of Pete Carroll, Smith is easy to blame for all that's been wrong with the Raiders' offense. A good portion of that blame is deserved, as some of the sacks have been due to his holding the ball too long. Smith and Pickett are certainly not being confused with peak Tom Brady.
But when a team's offensive tackles, for the majority of the season, are as starkly inept in pass protection as Forsythe and Glaze have been, no quarterback will be able to function at a high level. That two mediocre quarterbacks have been rendered helplessly unplayable is really no surprise.