Oakland Raiders: The Week 1 Aftermath

October 19, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders punter Marquette King (7) kicks the football during the first quarter against the Arizona Cardinals at O.co Coliseum. The Cardinals defeated the Raiders 24-13. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The Raiders Must Have Less “3 and out’s” Than The Bengals:

Technically, the Raiders accomplished this goal, as they only had 3 “3 and out’s” to the Bengals 4. But there are several reasons for this. For one, the Raiders had to go for it on 4th down a couple of times in the 4th quarter due to being down by so many points in the game. They also turned the ball over twice in the second half, so they obviously didn’t have to punt.

The big problem is that most of the Raiders “3 and out’s” occurred in 1st half, when the game was still in doubt. All of the Bengals “3 and out’s” were in the second half, when they where already ahead by a lot of points. It is important to keep your offense on the field, but not at the risk of giving the ball away via a turnover. Oakland needs to work on extending drives that end in points as well; they had three drives that were 6 plays or longer in the 1st half that resulted in no points.

It will be interesting to see if they can use the run game more effectively when they play Baltimore in an attempt to keep the T.O.P. in their favor, as well as to move the chains.

Next: The Big Play killed Oakland's Defense