Oakland Raiders found a gem in Latavius Murray
By Ernie Padaon
The Oakland Raiders already are out of the playoff hunt and the will be sitting at home at the end of the season. They are playing that spoiler role right now and are just winding down till next season. This is a good time for the team to evaluate some of the talent that they have on the roster and look at their potential for next season.
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In the last few games, the team has found an offensive weapon that they can look forward to using all next season. Latavius Murray has emerged out of the backfield as a playmaker. The team will use the final 3 games of the season to evaluate his potential for the coming year, but he has already shown a burst out of the backfield. He has already shown the ability to break off big plays.
Murray first received a decent shot at playing time against the San Diego Chargers in week 11. The Raiders were not able to get much established in the run game until they finally gave Murray aa shot late in the game. He was ripping off big chunks of yards in his limited opportunity. He took 4 carries and ran for 43 yards. Those 4 carries were enough to get another shot at playing time in the next week against the Chiefs.
This time around, he took the lead role going up against the Kansas City Chiefs and he showed that playmaking ability. He left the game early with a concussion, but finished the game with 4 carries for 112 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Could you imagine what those numbers would have looked like if he were able to finish the game?
Again on Sunday against the 49ers, he got a lot of work out of the backfield. He didn’t rip off a ton of yards against the tough defense and he finished the game with 23 carries for 76 yards. He never ripped off a big chunk of yards like he did in the previous games.
The Raiders face off against the Chiefs again on Sunday and Murray will get his chance to finish off what he started. What will he do as an encore to his previous performance against KC? Murray has been spectacular in his limited amount of time. He will need to show consistency on the field, but the potential is high and the team has a lot to look forward to with him in the backfield. He will get the rock in the final 3 games and the team will look to play spoiler behind Murray.