Even with Raiders offensive improvements one crucial thing still eludes them

Raiders have shown strides on offense in terms of passing and rushing. But they still can’t finish and scoring is actually down.

…Finishing.

Last we discussed how the Raiders offensive numbers have improved over the past few weeks under new interim OC Scott Turner. Pretty much across the board in terms of yards.

Points, however, are a different story. And the disturbing trend continued Sunday in Tampa.

The Raiders have yet to hit even 20 points in the Scott/Norv Turner era. In fact, it is getting worse each week.

First couple weeks they scored 19 points each game. Then 17 and last Sunday just 13 points. Leading to this ouch of a stat.

#Raiders ppg on offense by play-caller for last 10 seasons:
Bill Musgrave 23.4 (33 games)
Greg Olson 21.5 (13 games)
Jon Gruden 21.1 (53 games)
Bo Hardegree 19.8 (9 games)
Josh McDaniels 19.7 (25 games)
Todd Downing 18.8 (16 games)
Luke Getsy 17.9 (9 games)
Scott Turner 17 (4 games)

— Josh Dubow (@joshdubowap.bsky.social) December 9, 2024 at 11:57 AM

Yep, that’s the four game Turner era all the way at the bottom. Just below the name he replaced.

The past two weeks have been an exercise in not finishing drives. Several drives in KC they would make a couple big plays and then hit a wall just outside of reasonable field goal range, leading to three missed field goals in a two-point loss.

And in Tampa, to begin the third quarter, they went on a 16-play drive that ate up ten minutes only to have it end with an interception at the ten-yard line. They were down just four points at the time. That’s brutal. But all too common for them.

“We’ve just got to finish and that’s been kind of our theme this year, right?” Pierce said Monday. “Getting down all the way into the red zone, inside the five and then pump the brakes and it doesn’t go our way. So we’ve got to continue to work on that, which we’ll do this week.”

When Pierce says “pumping the brakes” he is speaking of the two times the Raiders got inside the ten only to end up settling for a chip shot field goal.

So, while there are positive signs to be had if you look hard enough, it isn’t translating to where it matters most — the scoreboard. So the losing streak continues.