Raiders seeing red over lack of execution inside the 20
The Raiders have been learning how costly mistakes can be when the space is constricted inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
They believe it’s time to start turning those lessons into tangible changes.
“The players are eager to fix that,” offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi said of the turnovers and penalties that have killed far too many drives in the red zone. “They’re aware of it and ready to go to work on that.”
A 21-17 victory over the Patriots on Sunday masked the team’s continued difficulties in turning sustained drives into seven points instead of settling for three far too often.
The Raiders scored a touchdown on just one of six possessions that reached New England’s 20-yard line.
There is an awareness, however, that those kind of results will not be enough to continue winning when the schedule gets more difficult.
“We had opportunities whether it was the running game or the passing game, and we just didn’t quite capitalize on them,” coach Josh McDaniels said. “Down there it’s all about details and execution. 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.”
That’s exactly what happened Sunday, but it’s not a new issue. The Raiders are 25th in the NFL, turning red-zone possessions into touchdowns 40.91 percent of the time. That’s down from 48.94 percent last season.
They’re converting on just 35.71 percent of their trips in the past three games despite going 2-1.
There’s not just one area of concern, though the common denominator seems to be self-inflicted wounds. Penalties, turnovers and a dropped pass were the biggest culprits Sunday.
The opening possession of the game saw the Raiders settle for a field goal on two separate occasions. A holding penalty on guard Dylan Parham wiped out a nice gain for Josh Jacobs and turned a third-and-1 into third-and-11, which would have been converted had DeAndre Carter not dropped the ball on a short crossing route with plenty of green grass in front of him.
New England gave the Raiders a second chance with a personal foul on the field-goal attempt, but the Raiders ran the ball for two short gains and then Jimmy Garoppolo threw the ball away to set up a second chance at a field goal.
Their second possession also reached the red zone, but the drive stalled when Davante Adams took a huge hit and the ball popped in the air for an interception.
“First of all, we can’t commit turnovers,” Lombardi said. “And we can’t commit penalties. You look at the first drive in the game, we’re down there and have a third-and-1 on the 9-yard line, and we pop a run to the 4 with (Jacobs). First down on the 4-yard line, and we get a holding penalty. That’s unacceptable.”
But it wasn’t over. The Raiders did get their only touchdown on the third drive when Garoppolo hit Jakobi Meyers for a 12-yard touchdown, but Meyers was called for offensive pass interference just outside the red zone on a first-and-10 as time was ticking down in the second quarter. The flag put them behind the sticks, and the drive eventually stalled when a long pass to Meyers came up short of the first down at the 18-yard line.
It hasn’t just been a Garoppolo issue, either. The lasting image of rookie Aidan O’Connell’s only start is a potential game-winning drive that was halted by an interception at the goal line. Brian Hoyer replaced an injured Garoppolo in the second half Sunday and picked up right where Garoppolo left off, engineering solid drives that never quite reached the destination.
Hoyer led the Raiders down the field before Thayer Munford was called for a holding penalty on first-and-10 from the Patriots 11. A shot to Meyers in the end zone was incomplete, a quick throw to Tre Tucker gained nine and a third-down throw was not close.
Another field goal.
The Raiders then had a first-and-goal at the 9-yard line early in the fourth quarter. Jacobs ran twice for 3 yards before an errant attempt at a fade pass to Adams.
Six of their first seven possessions reached the red zone, yet the Raiders crossed the goal line just once.
“The good about that is you play good enough to get it down there as many times as you do,” McDaniels said. “Now, let’s fix that area of the field and let’s play our best football down there going forward.”
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.