Gardner Minshew says the quiet part out loud about the Raiders' continued red zone struggles
The Las Vegas Raiders should be trying to lose, and I think we can all agree on that now. They desperately need their quarterback of the future, as Gardner Minshew just had another turnover when I was typing that sentence. Not really, but, you get the point. It's time to take this team to the […]
The Las Vegas Raiders should be trying to lose, and I think we can all agree on that now. They desperately need their quarterback of the future, as Gardner Minshew just had another turnover when I was typing that sentence. Not really, but, you get the point.
It's time to take this team to the next level, somewhere they haven't been in 20 years — a postseason game-winning team. To do that, they need their quarterback. But, as we all know, the Raiders won't just try to lose, and the players and coaches certainly won't try either. They want to win every game, no matter what their record is, even if it's in their best interest to lose.
The reason we are here saying this today, though, is because the Raiders offense has been so poor. It may very well be the worst offense in the league. It's gotten that way purely off of turnovers, bad quarterback play, bad offensive line play, injuries, and poor play in the red zone.
That last one is so critical as of late, though.
The sequence of plays that really stands out with the recent actions of play caller and offensive coordinator Luke Getsy now on the hot seat, is the three straight runs on the goalline. The Raiders got an interception on Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, Tre'Von Moehrig returned it to the three-yard line.
It's first and goal at the three-yard line, and the Raiders run the same run three straight times. That was unacceptable, and the Raiders could have scored there and went up on the Chiefs. That's not the only time, either, as they did something similar against the Los Angeles Rams as well.
Their playcalling and red zone issues are terrible at the moment.
"Yeah, I think most plays you have a chance if you do it right," Gardner Minshew said on Wednesday. "Guys can make it right on most plays. And I think there were opportunities there to do it, and we didn't do it. So, at the end of the day, we got to look at ourselves. Everybody's got to see, 'How can I do my job better?' And I think we are doing that. I feel good about how we're approaching this week, the attitude of the guys, attitude of the coaches, I think everybody's coming in and putting their work hat on and ready to get back after it."
This has to get better if they want to be a competitive team. But then again, maybe this is all according to plan.
The Raiders will play the Cincinnati Bengals this weekend.
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The Raiders may not be doing this intentionally, but it’s what needs to be done.
