After years of inadequacy in both the general manager and head coach chairs, the Las Vegas Raiders have made an attempt to kill complacency this season. Even though they are light-years ahead of where they were, with a 4-5 record at the midway point, they haven't been afraid to rock the boat.
Last week, Klint Kubiak bucked the status quo in the running back room and made a bevy of other changes to the rotation on both sides of the ball. And the Silver and Black continued to refine things in their Week 9 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Of course, you can't just keep swinging the pendulum back and forth every week, but as the losers of five of their last six games, Las Vegas is in no position to keep things exactly the same every Sunday. So, here are five significant alterations that the Raiders made in this past weekend's game.
5 snap count and usage changes Raiders made against 49ers in Week 9
1. Tim Keenan III might be here to stay at nose tackle
Keenan III has been elevated from the practice squad in each of the last three weeks, and he logged 19 snaps in his first two appearances. That number was bumped up to 36 on Sunday, so the Raiders must like what they've seen from him, or they wanted to see more before needing to make a decision.
Now that Keenan III is out of standard elevations, Las Vegas would need to activate him to the 53-man roster if they want him to play again this season. Rob Leonard seemed to have a use for him, so perhaps the front office finds some way to make this happen. He's had flashes, but hasn't been great.
2. Jackson Powers-Johnson has officially been relegated to a bench role
Trey Zuhn III got the start at right guard again, which was expected, but for the second week in a row, Caleb Rogers has been the one to come in as an extra lineman. And when Zuhn III left the game with a concussion, Rogers replaced him at right guard. Powers-Johnson is nowhere to be found.
3. Ashton Jeanty was back to being RB1
Although Jeanty and Mike Washington Jr. split carries (6 each) against the 49ers, the former outsnapped the latter, 32-17. If it were a more favorable game script, Jeanty may have gotten more carries again, as he was obviously the first-team running back yet again. The pendulum swings.
4. Tommy Eichenberg is becoming a mainstay... for a bad reason
Eichenberg played just 66 defensive snaps in the first six games of the season, but in the last three weeks, he has played 43, 22 and 30. A lot of this has to do with other teams running 13 personnel against the Raiders, though, because they can't stop it. Eichenberg is out there to match them.
Until Las Vegas finds a way to stop getting run all over and beat through the air by heavy sets, teams will continue to run them against Leonard's unit. And Eichenberg will be out there as the Raiders go heavy in response to the offense's personnel grouping.
5. Malcolm Koonce's role continues to diminish
It's been a game of "Where's Waldo?" for Koonce since Week 3, as he's recorded just 0.5 sacks since then. And after playing between 40 and 50 percent of the snaps every game for the first six weeks, his role has significantly dropped off in two of the last three weeks, reaching a new low on Sunday.
In Week 7, he played just 30.6 percent of the snaps. In Week 9, that number was down to 27.4 percent. Other teams are running the ball like crazy against the Raiders, and Koonce is not known to be a great run defender, but Las Vegas has to find a way to get him more involved.
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