You’d hope the kinks of a new blocking scheme would have been worked out by the start of an NFL season. With a full offseason to work in the new system, this is something the coaches are responsible for ensuring their players are adept at handling before putting it on the field live when the games count.
It’s painfully obvious that the Raiders offensive players are either not getting it or the coaching staff is not coaching it properly. Perhaps some of both. Their historically bad run game is living proof of that.
“We’re watching it firsthand. You guys have seen it. There’s a learning curve and we’re still going through the process,” Pierce said of the transition from power blocking to zone blocking.
Ted Nguyen broke down a few poor run plays the Raiders had in Sunday’s brutal loss to the Panthers that were indicative of the disconnect happening on the field.
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As Ted points out, the problem isn’t just on the offensive line. Which also suggests it’s not primarily on the players. They can’t all just be not getting it. There are some proven smart players out there who are clearly trying to just ‘do their job’ on a given play. But either the job they were given is severely flawed or the manner in which they were coached was confusing.
Pierce said Monday that there is going to need to be a lot of changes on the Raiders offense to fix the run game. He seemed to hint on Wednesday that the immediate change could be in play calling. At least until the offense can start executing the new scheme.
“At the end of the day you get the scheme team, you can be a player driven team, you can be a ‘what works’ team,” Pierce continued. “And we need to become what works. What works for the Raiders.”