The Raiders Will Go as Far as Their Offense Takes Them

The Las Vegas Raiders learned new things about themselves as a team during their Week 2 loss on the road to the Buffalo Bills. Other things, such as the importance of the offense to keep the team in games, were solidified.

Four turnovers, 55 rushing yards and last year's NFL leading rusher finishing with negative yardage in a game will not get it done. Sunday was the first time a defending league rushing leader finished a game with negative yards since the NFL merger in 1970.

"On offense, if you want to have a successful play, you're going to need 11 guys to do what's asked of them or at least do it competitively," Coach Josh McDaniels said.

"We've got to block the right people, we've got to sustain our blocks, we've got to finish. If we have an opportunity with double teams, we've got to do a good job of moving our double teams and creating an entry point. We've got to read the runs the way JJ [Josh Jacobs] reads them and get downhill."

"Receivers have got to block, we've got to get a body on the linebackers. I mean, you name it, and we took a turn not doing it nearly well enough. So, that's my job, and we'll get it fixed."

Offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi shared that the offense was visibly different before the turnovers started and after.

"We did a good job first of all of taking care of the football on the first drive, which helped," Lombardi said. "Then the next couple of drives, we just committed penalties or turned the football over and had negative plays. And that just isn't going to sustain drives.

"Missed opportunities in the passing game and running game. We took advantage of opportunities early on the drive with the screen to Davante [Adams] and with the screen to Josh [Jacobs], then you get some chunks.

"Then it comes into getting a negative play in the running game and then a missed opportunity in the passing game and that presents problems in terms of sustaining drives and scoring points. I think overall we have to do a better job of just making sure we have positive plays and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves."

The strength of this Raiders team is undoubtedly its offense. Football is the ultimate team sport. Turning the ball over, failing to sustain drives and leaving their defense on the field for 40 minutes will never end well for Las Vegas.

The Silver and Black return home to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas to play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Sept. 24, at 8:20 p.m. EDT/5:20 p.m. PDT.

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