in ‘manageable situations’ in loss to Broncos
www.oaklandraidersteamonline.com , Jon Gruden looking for ‘more big chunk plays’ In one regard, Derek Carr’s stat
line last Sunday was stunning. I mean, completing 29 of 32 passes is incredible.
Over 30 passes with just three incompletions seems hard to believe. What is also
a bit hard to believe about those completion numbers is the yardage total. On 29
completions, he had just 288 yards. That’s less than ten yards per
completion.Welcome (back) to the West Coast Offense, folks. It’s basic tenets
are to dink and dunk defenses to death. There’s nothing wrong with that, but a
you can see by Derek Carr’s stat line, even near perfection in completion
percentage wasn’t enough to pull out the win with it. At least not with the
defense failing to hold up their end.You’ll recall, Gruden and Rich Gannon had a
great deal of success in such an offense back around the turn of the century.
It’s a conservative offense and that’s how Derek Carr has been approaching
it.After the first week, Gruden said he wanted to see Carr push the ball down
the field more. While Carr was reluctant, saying he didn’t want to force it. The
game plan didn’t do him a lot of favors either, with just two play action passes
the whole game. One sign things are changing is that number went up to eight in
the second game.“Play-action, you’re holding the ball for a long time. The rush
is coming and trust me I know that from experience,” Carr said. “To stay on
schedule, you hear coaches say that all the time, you have shot plays and
sometimes you have to check them down to get six yards, well third-and-4 is a
lot better than third-and-10 for a missed shot. . . We have certain plays that
we like versus certain looks that sometimes
Oakland Raiders T-Shirt , it’s hey, ‘get us in this manageable situation, we like these calls and this grouping.’ I could go on for hours about that kind of
stuff, but you know. I think that taking eight play-action shots against Denver
was pretty aggressive and we were able to do some good things against him.”Short
passes to put the Raiders into more manageable was hit or miss Sunday. He had 12
passes for 7 yards or less that weren’t to get the first down. Exactly half of
those (6) they were unable to take advantage and get the first down, resulting
in a stalled drive. One of those, he opted for a short pass to Marshawn Lynch
for a loss of four yards, while missing a wide open Amari Cooper in the back of
the end zone.There were some deeper throws in this game from Carr. And more deep
completions than in the opener. Despite Jared Cook catching four passes of 27
yards or more, only one of those was a deep pass. The others were short passes
with yards after the catch. Carr had six passes go for 20 yards or more in
Denver, three of which were deep passes, with one being the laser touchdown pass
to Seth Roberts.The increase in bigger plays this game makes it even more
surprising Carr was unable to surpass ten yards per completion. Which just goes
to show you how many short passes there really were. Short passes aren’t the
issue, really. It’s about finding the right receiver and putting it right where
it needs to be to gets the most yards out of it.“I just want to be productive
when we throw it,” said Gruden. “I think [TE Jared] Cook averaged 20-yards a
catch in the first game. Throwing the ball on-time and accurate is a big part of
winning football. We hope to get more big chunk plays. We are making an attempt
to do that, and I think you will see some more of that as the year
unfolds.”That’s how Gannon became a Pro Bowl passer under Gruden; By being a
smart quarterback who almost always made the right decision. In those four
seasons in Gruden’s offense (one after Gruden was gone) Gannon averaged over 26
TD’s and 11 INT with 11.5 yards per completion. And from a yards per catch
perspective, Tim Brown had his second and third best seasons. Which means
despite the dinks and dunks, there was plenty of deep shots as well.Follow
@LeviDamien‘Heartbeat of this team’ Khalil Mack contract holdout has been
‘grueling’ for Raiders We are officially exactly two weeks until the Raiders
open the 2018 NFL season. And still no Khalil Mack. What once seemed like no big
deal and no reason to panic has started to get a little more stressful. The
Raiders coaches don’t absolutely need Mack to participate in the offseason
program or minicamp or training camp or even the preseason. Hell, Derek Carr has
taken 13 snaps this preseason
Oakland Raiders Hats , so how much of a difference would having Khalil Mack make? Gruden thinks it would make a big difference.“His playmaking, his leadership,
his presence,” Gruden says of what Mack brings to the team dynamic. “Great
players like Mack have all those things going for them. They make people around
them better. And they make offenses account for you. If you’re going to account
for Khalil Mack, you probably got to double team the guy. Someone else is not
going to have to deal with that. There’s a lot of things that a great player
brings to your football team. Hopefully that’s sometime soon.”Yeah, sometime
soon would be kind of a must at this point. And Gruden is not going to predict
Mack will make it in time to start the season.“I don’t want to put any timetable
on it,” Gruden continued. “This has obviously been a long process that’s been
grueling for both parties, the fans, and me personally. We’re just hoping we can
get him in here.”This is the second year in a row the Raiders have gone through
this with one of their players. Donald Penn held out of camp and preseason
looking for a new contract. He ended up returning to the team just prior to the
start of the season despite not having a deal in place. And he eventually got
the deal he was looking for. So, as you might expect, he doesn’t think having
Mack here this offseason is a big deal.“It doesn’t impact us at all. It’s the
next guy up. It’s part of the business game,” Penn said of Mack’s absence.
“Every guy in that locker room — I know how it is, I’ve been through it three
times already in my career —those guy know how the business side of this. They
know as a professional athlete, when you’re not here, you have to take care of
yourself and I know Khalil’s out there working his butt off just like I was when
I was holding out.”In fact, Penn thinks Mack’s absence has actually been a good
thing.“We want him here
Oakland Raiders Hoodie , but I don’t think it’s affecting us, I think it’s helping us,” said Penn. “We know what Khalil can do, everybody knows what Khalil can do.
Now we got guys like [Arden] Key and all these guys getting reps out there. We
got Fadol [Brown] who’s coming out here just balling, he’s having a great camp.
My hat’s off to him and Key, they’re both having a great camp. Give these guys
reps, give these guys time to grow. It kind of helped when I was hurting this
offseason because Kolton [Miller] has been able to get all those reps and been
able to grow and get better and help us as a team when Khalil does get here and
we go full force.”Penn said he spoke to Mack prior to the team’s second
preseason game against the Rams, and he said Mack was “In good spirits”. But if
the next time the Raider face the Rams in the season opener, Mack isn’t back in
uniform, there won’t be any cause for good spirits then.When the games start
counting, this team absolutely cannot be without its best player. At least Penn
understands that.“I hope and a pray it gets done real fast because he and Derek
are the heartbeat of this team,” Penn added. He speaks for an entire
organization and fan base with that statement.Follow @LeviDamien
