Josh McDaniels Pressed on Raiders' Red Zone Struggles

The Las Vegas Raiders have struggled mightily through six games once they hit the red zone, an issue they'll need to fix moving forward.

The Las Vegas Raiders are on a two-game win streak and playing arguably the best football they've played all season. 

The Raiders could also easily be on a three-game winning streak and undefeated in AFC West play if they could score more touchdowns once they reach the red zone.

Coach Josh McDaniels was asked if there was a disconnect between him and the offense once they got into the red zone.

"There's no disconnect," McDaniels said. "I mean, you have to do many things right down there. To me, it's when you get down there, there's a premium on everything we do.

"We've had multiple penalties down there that cost us. We had two holding penalties and an offensive pass interference that puts you now in first-and-20 or second-and-20 in an area where that's really difficult to overcome."

The Las Vegas Raiders offense struggles with a lack of a deep-ball threat / © Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports

Over the last couple of weeks, the Raiders have been moving the ball better, but that stops being the case once they hit the red zone. The fact of the matter is that plenty of potentially successful plays were called but not appropriately executed on the field. 

"I mean, there's less space, which means your execution has to be better than it is at the 50-yard line," McDaniels said. "Right now, we're not doing a good enough job down there.

"There's very, very little margin for error. And when you make an error, it usually is exacerbated, and it ends up in either a negative play or you're kicking field goals."

The Raiders' three victories have come by an average of three points; Las Vegas scored five touchdowns in 13 trips to the red zone in those games. 

McDaniels said his responsibility is to help improve the team in that area. 

"We fell behind the sticks, I think, three times down there in the red zone," McDaniels said. "And when you do that, it's very difficult to overcome. So, obviously we have to do better.

"I have to do a better job of trying to get us to play penalty free and be able to capitalize on the opportunities that we have. The good thing about that is, is you play good enough to get it down there as many times as we do."

McDaniels is focused on getting the issue fixed. 

"Now, let's fix that," McDaniels said. "Let's fix that area of the field, and let's play our best football down there going forward. What does that look like? What's that game going to be?

"In that regard, I'm a glass half-full guy and we're going to try to fix that. We're going to do everything we can to do that. I thought we played well on third down enough yesterday to get it down there and now we've got to capitalize on our opportunities." 

While a win is a win, there are many reasons why the Raiders have struggled in the red zone, and a few more touchdowns instead of field goals would help Las Vegas' defense not have to play their absolute best game every week. 

The Silver and Black will head on the road to take on the Chicago Bears on Sunday, Oct. 22, at 1:05 p.m. EDT/10:05 a.m. PDT.

Please tell us your thoughts when you like our Facebook Page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.