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Nothing is going right for the Las Vegas Raiders. Following a third loss of the season where they held a 17-0 lead, the team could be close to falling apart completely. This is evident by the fact that some of their star players are growing more comfortable having criticism of the coaches.
Directly after Sunday’s loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, wide receiver Davante Adams suggested that he was frustrated with the playing in the second half. He thought the Raiders did too much to establish the run when the passing game was working really well. Adams made sure to say that he wasn’t trying to call out his coaches but did want his input to be known. Head coach Josh McDaniels has to be feeling the heat now that he’s leading a team that made the playoffs last year to a 2-6 record. He had a chance to respond to Adams’ comment and isn’t offended by what the wide receiver had to say.
“Davante didn’t … I know what he meant when he said that, and I don’t take any of those things personally,” McDaniels said Monday. “The reality is we have opportunities. We gotta come through with them and I have to do a good job of trying to make sure that we continue to try to present opportunities for our team.”
McDaniels Explains Why He Wanted to Establish the Run
The Raiders have only won two games this season. In those two wins, Josh Jacobs combined for 287 rushing yards and five touchdowns. When Jacobs has a big game, the team typically wins. For his part, Adams didn’t have a great second half against the Jaguars. He had one catch for zero yards so it wasn’t like he was producing when the ball was thrown his way.
It made sense for the Raiders to try and slow the game down with how well Jacobs has been playing. McDaniels explained his rationale for trying to establish the run in the second half.
“It is what it is, but you end up throwing it really well in the first half and producing a lot of yards and points with very little success in the running game,” McDaniels said. “I’ve looked at it many times because I called a lot of different games: is that a sustainable model to keep playing where you’re going to throw it for 450 [yards] and not run it for any? It’s a tough thing to think you’re going to be able to just do it that way.”
Solution for Raiders Isn’t to Throw the Ball More
Adams likely wouldn’t be complaining about not seeing the ball as much if the Raiders were winning games. At 2-6, he feels that he could be doing more to help the team win games. That might be true but the solution isn’t to just force-feed him for all four quarters of every game.
Simply put, the Raiders just need to execute better on offense. They have enough talent to have a balanced attack. Jacobs is a Pro Bowl running back, Derek Carr is a Pro Bowl quarterback who has three Pro Bowl receivers to throw to and McDaniels is a Super Bowl-winning offensive coach. There’s no reason this offense shouldn’t be an elite and balanced group. There’s no simple solution to this problem but McDaniels has to solve it soon.
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