McDaniels: Offensive Line Working Through Difficulties

The Las Vegas Raiders' offensive line entered last season as one of the most significant question marks of the team. They finished last season as one of the best offensive lines in the National Football League, en route to running back Josh Jacobs leading the league in rushing.

Naturally, all eyes would again be on Las Vegas' offensive line this season because of Jacobs and the fact that football games are won and lost on the offensive line. To start the season, Jacobs and the Raiders' offense are off to a less-than-ideal start.

For Coach Josh McDaniels, more time together and extra preparation time is the answer to the situation the Raiders find themselves in.

“Yeah, I mean, we're banded together," McDaniels said. "We're determined, worked really hard all week long, spending some extra time with each other. That's the way you solve problems in our league. It's a long season and every team goes through some ups and downs in certain areas of their game.

"And we did this last year, there were certain areas where we were struggling early and kind of figured out how to fix it and improve it. And I think that's the mark of a mature group of guys who want to try to address things that maybe they're not doing as well as they'd like."

McDaniels shared that the difficulties go beyond just the offensive line.

"And so, again, it's not the offensive line and the offensive line alone, there's fullbacks and tight ends and backs and receivers, and everybody's involved with those types of things," McDaniels said.

"But that group in particular is very mature, very determined, works really hard, very consistent with their day-to-day approach. I see no difference this week. I mean, they're adamant about trying to improve in any way that they can to help the team.”

Offensive lineman Dylan Parham shared his mindset going into this Sunday's divisional game against the Los Angeles Chargers.

"We need to execute more, at a high level, and not really take turns amongst the different people on the offensive line or on the offense in general," Parham told Sports Illustrated. "For us, we can't have too many people take one turn.

"If everybody is taking turns, we're not really going to have that many successful plays. For us, we all need to execute as one and eliminate some of those plays where we're not executing at our highest level."

Parham is right. It seems as if all of the Raiders' offense has yet to get on the same page, which is essential for the success of any team. It will be necessary for the Raiders offensive line to get going soon. Jacobs, and perhaps the Raiders' season, depends on it.

The Silver and Black return to the road this week in Inglewood, Calif., to play the Los Angeles Chargers (1-2) on Sunday, Oct. 1, at 4:05 p.m. EDT/1:05 p.m. PDT.

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