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The Las Vegas Raiders are a new team following the firing of head coach Josh McDaniels. The team has back-to-back wins, including a Week 10 16-12 win over the New York Jets.
Running back Josh Jacobs has seen his season turn around as he had 53 carries for 214 and two touchdowns over the last two games. Jacobs is on the franchise tag and could be a free agent after the season. According to NBC’s Melissa Stark, the running back was thinking his time with the Raiders would be over before the team moved on from McDaniels.
“He feels like he’s respected a lot more,” Stark said during the November 12 “Sunday Night Football” broadcast. “He didn’t feel like that at the start of the season. He didn’t feel like they were trying to feature him then. Pierce told him he’s the heart and soul of this team. He loved hearing that, said it’s made him locked in. Jacobs told me this is the first time all he’s thought, ‘I’ll actually be back next year.'”
Jacobs led the NFL with 1,653 rushing yards last season under McDaniels but something changed this season. He was clearly frustrated with the offense but is back to feeling productive in a Raiders offense that is showing signs of life the past two weeks.
Josh Jacobs Wants the ‘Burden’
Josh Jacobs leads the NFL in carries with 186. He’s also third in rushing yards with 622 despite the rough start to the season. Jacobs has become a true workhorse running back for the Raiders and they’ve leaned on him in the past.
That’s a role Jacobs is comfortable with. He wants to put the offense on his back and try to help win games.
“I said, ‘(Not) everybody want(s) the burden. (Shoot), I want the burden. Put the burden on me,’” Jacobs said during his November 12 postgame media availability, via Tashan Reed of The Athletic. “I think everybody dug down and had the same mindset to accomplish the goal that we wanted to accomplish.”
The Raiders are 4-0 this season if Jacobs carries the ball 20 or more times.
Josh Jacobs Believes Offensive Resurgence Isn’t a Fluke
The Raiders offense was among the worst in the NFL prior to Josh McDaniels getting fired. While they only scored 16 points on the Jets, they were facing the seventh-best scoring defense in the NFL.
Jacobs doesn’t think that the way the offense has been playing the last two weeks is an accident.
“We know what type of team we have here,” Jacobs said. “This is not a fluke. The work that we put in, I feel like it’s going to pay off.”
Wide receiver Davante Adams had his best game in weeks against the Jets with six catches for 86 yards. Though the win over the Jets wasn’t as easy as the Week 9 win over the Giants, Adams is happy with what he’s seeing from the team.
“It’s not always going to be easy, but it shows that we’re that type of team,” Adams said during his November 12 postgame media availability. “We can grit it out and stay together and finish it no matter what style of ball we’re playing.”
The next matchup is against a very good Miami Dolphins team, which will be the highest test yet in the post-McDaniels era.
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