Last season, the Las Vegas Raiders’ offense struggled to create explosive plays, regularly failing to move the ball. Last week, the unit again failed to consistently create explosive plays, even though it was one of the team’s primary focus areas this offseason.
Jakobi Meyer’s 33-yard reception was the longest offensive play the Raiders had against the Chargers. Conversely, the longest play the Chargers’ offense had was a 61-yard run by running back J.K. Dobbins. The lack of explosive plays negatively impacted Offensive Coordinator Luke Getsy’s game plan, as the Chargers effectively stopped the Raiders’ run game and made them one-dimensional. That led to the Chargers’ defensive line creating pressure on quarterback Gardner Minshew, giving Minshew little-to-no time to get the ball down the field.
It must be noted that on Sunday, against the Chargers, explosive plays were there to be made, unlike last season. However, the offense failed to execute the explosive plays that were available correctly. Raiders All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams says the Chargers did some things well, but the Raiders’ offense has to get the job going forward, regardless of what the opposing defense does.
“I mean, it's not always as easy as it looks,” Adams said. “Sometimes you catch them in the right coverage, sometimes you don't. And obviously the way that I get played a lot of times, we call the play in hopes that they'll play something and then depending on what they do, we got to adjust from there. So, sometimes it's a little bit of luck of the draw of kind of the play call mixing up with the coverage you're going up against.
“And then sometimes it's just guys got to make plays regardless of coverage and get balls thrown and make it work in the run game or whatever, regardless of what they're showing us and all of that. You can't really make excuses, you got to get it done. But that's just the reality, sometimes we call certain plays, and they'll give a funky coverage and it'll kind of ruin the shot that we want to take, or we had the screen called, or whatever the case may be. So, I think the name of the game is just adjusting and figure it out.”
