📢 TOP STORY: Strip Away the Excuses and the Raiders’ Struggles Come into a Stark, Eye-Opening Focus ⚡.DH

The Las Vegas Raiders continue to lose the battle at the most critical position on the field. Their 2-12 record confirms that games are won and lost in the trenches.

Raiders’ Downfall

Las Vegas entered the season with hopes of proving they had made progress over the summer. The regular season was supposed to be proof that the moves the Raiders‘ front office made during the offseason were not in vain.

However, things went downhill as soon as Brock Bowers limped off the field in Week 1. Early injuries to some of their best offensive linemen only made their weakness along the offensive line even more noticeable. It is an issue they have not been able to solve all season.

Most of the Raiders’ struggles have stemmed from the offensive line. Injuries, poor positional coaching, and poor execution have doomed the line and the Raiders’ offense. Las Vegas’ line has allowed the most sacks in the league this season and cannot block for Ashton Jeanty.

Anthony Holzman-Escareno of NFL.com put the Raiders’ offensive line deficiencies into statistical perspective. Stats are not the end-all, be-all in football. However, in this case, the numbers are telling for the Raiders.

“The offensive line has been an issue in Las Vegas all season. Only three players have allowed at least 10 sacks in pass protection this season. Two of them are the Raiders’ starting offensive tackles.

Raiders left tackle Stone Forsythe has allowed the most sacks in the NFL with 11.5, while right tackle DJ Glaze has allowed the third most with 10.0. Tennessee Titans’ left tackle Dan Moore is the only other player to allow double-digit sacks this season (11.0),” Holzman-Escareno said.

Earlier this week, Raiders Interim Offensive Coordinator Greg Olson analyzed the performance of the offensive line. He noted that their performance has made it difficult to assess Jeanty’s skill set accurately.

“Obviously, not a lot of space runs for him so far this season. So, certainly a difficult evaluation for him, for any rookie, and you go back and look at it. It’s a learning curve to begin with, but on top of that, not a lot of success in what we’ve had rushing the football this year.

So, in terms of running the football, it’s been a difficult stretch for him. But as you alluded to, he breaks tackles,” Olson said.

“We know he’s tough inside the tackles. He’s very good when he gets out in the open field and has a chance to square up a defensive back in the back end. Whether he needs to make him miss or run him over, he can do both. 

“So, we do like what we see when we get him in open field, and we like his toughness inside. He’s gone through it, like you said, a very tough rookie season, but he’s shown up for work every day. He hits the holes; he moves the pile. So, there’s some things there that you can look at and evaluate in a good way.”